IRAQ: Iraq's ex-deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, made his first public appearance in three years in the trial of Saddam Hussein yesterday, calling on the court to try current leaders for attacks on the state in the 1980s.
Mr Aziz, the highest-profile witness for Saddam in his trial for crimes against humanity following a failed assassination attempt in 1982, was once the international public face of the toppled leader's government and one of his closest aides.
He accused one of the parties now in power, the Islamist Shia Dawa party of the new prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, of trying to kill him and Saddam in the 1980s.
Saddam and seven co-defendants are accused of reprisals, including the killings of 148 Shia, in the town of Dujail after an attempt to assassinate the former Iraqi leader in 1982.
Referring to a separate hand grenade attack targeting Mr Aziz at a Baghdad university in 1980, the former deputy premier said: "I'm a victim of criminal acts committed by a party presently in power now. Try them. . . They killed dozens of students." Mr Aziz, a long-time ally of Saddam but not among the accused at the trial, said the assassination attempt in Dujail was part of a series of operations targeting officials and civilians and Iraqi authorities had every right to crack down on the Dawa. Mr Aziz, whose family says he is seriously-ill, was number 43 on the US most-wanted list of Iraqi officials.
Saddam's former personal secretary, Abed Hamid, said a woman marked Saddam's car with the blood of a sheep slaughtered in a welcoming ceremony for him to guide gunmen who opened fire on his convoy 24 years ago.
"I ordered the cars to be switched without the knowledge of the president," Mr Hamid said. The trial was adjourned until next Monday