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Ex-Iraqi deputy PM Tareq Aziz starts hunger strike
 Former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz has begun a hunger strike to protest the refusal by prison authorities holding him in Iraq to allow him to see a lawyer, his attorney said Thursday. But a spokesman for US detainee operations in Baghdad denied it. "I can confirm that he has been receiving his meals and that he met with his lawyer yesterday," Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry told AFP. More from the Khaleej Times Aziz, held by US troops since his surrender in April 2003, needs to sign a legal document authorizing his lawyer to present a case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Given the refusal of the US and British authorities at the camp where Tareq Aziz is held to allow his lawyer to see him and to sign a legal document giving his attorney the authority to pursue his request before the ECHR, he and his colleagues at the detention camp decided on Wednesday to begin a hunger strike, attorney Izzat Rabih Aref said in a statement. Azizs Italian lawyer, Giovanni Di Stefano, said his clients hunger strike signalled a sad day for international jurisprudence. The US and the UK know a form of authority is required and they wish to stop any form of internationally-recognized legal court hearing the case of Mr Aziz, Di Stefano said in a statement. He charged that if Aziz is denied the right to see his lawyer and to sign the required authorization document, there is no chance of ever holding a fair trial. The European court has agreed to consider a request by Aziz concerning his detention but is awaiting official responses to three questions, one of Azizs lawyers said Tuesday. The court wants to know to which forces he surrendered on April 24, 2003, which forces have been holding him since then, and where and on what date they intend to hand him over to Iraqi authorities. Azizs Italian lawyers said late last month they had presented a case to the ECHR after concluding that his security could be endangered if he were turned over to Iraqi authorities by US-led coalition forces.
Posted by: Fred 2006-07-07 |
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