Iraq court acquits Tareq Aziz of Shiite killings

An Iraqi court acquitted former deputy premier Tareq Aziz of all charges related to the killing and displacing of Shiite Muslims in 1999. While Saddam Hussein's top henchman and cousin "Chemical Ali" was given his third death sentence by for his involvement in the matter.

Ali Hassan al-Majeed, who earned notoriety for his role in using poison gas to kill thousands of Kurdish villagers, was condemned to death for "premeditated killing as a crime against humanity" and displacing civilians in raids on their homes.

In the latest case, the Iraqi military were ordered into Shiite areas, mainly in Baghdad, to prevent demonstrations after the assassination of revered Shiite cleric Mohammed Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr.

Al-Jaeed’s previous sentences were for masterminding a genocidal campaign against Kurds in the 1980s and killing thousands of Shiites in a crackdown on their uprising after the 1991 Gulf War. Those executions have been held up by political wrangling.

Aziz is also facing another trial for his alleged involvement in executing dozens of merchants accused of breaking state price controls in 1992.

Of the 14 defendants, two others were sentenced to death and four were jailed for life, including Abed Hamid Mahmoud, who was Saddam's personal secretary at the time.

The Iraqi High Tribunal was set up in 2003, after the U.S. invasion, to try former members of Saddam's government and was the same one that sentenced the former dictator to death.

New York-based Human Rights Watch estimates 290,000 people vanished under Saddam, many of their bodies heaped in ditches.

Saddam was executed in December 2006 after being convicted of crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shiite men and boys after a 1982 assassination attempt.

His half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was executed two weeks later in a botched hanging that tore off his head. Two other members of the former government have also been executed.