 AMMAN - Detained former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has been fitted with a new set of dentures and is in generally good health, his son said Wednesday, despite reports he could be close to death. “My father phoned us on Monday. He was in high spirits and said he was generally in good health,” Ziad Aziz told AFP. “He told us that the Americans gave him a new set of dentures, having lost his teeth eight months ago,” Ziad said, adding that during that time his father had been living on liquid food.
AzizÂ’s lawyer and his own family have repeatedly said over the past weeks that Saddam HusseinÂ’s former mouthpiece as it were, being held in US custody in Iraq, was in poor health.
One attorney has called for him to be transferred to Moscow, saying he needed urgent medical treatment for heart problems. “Tareq Aziz is not in good health. He is suffering from an embolism ... and complains of severe pain in his heart,” Italian lawyer Giovanni di Stefano told the Russian government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Tuesday.
| Gitmo has docs. So does Diego Garcia. I'm pretty sure the Navy docs can handle whatever he has. |
In January AzizÂ’s Iraqi lawyer Badie Arif Ezzat, warned that his clientÂ’s health has seriously deteriorated following cerebral embolism and heart problems, and that he could soon die.
| Sooner he dies, sooner he meets Himmler. |
But a US official said AzizÂ’s health had not significantly worsened and noted that he had been suffering from existing ailments when taken into custody after his surrendered to US forces following the fall of Baghdad in April 2003.
| Sorta like how the mob bosses spend all their nights chowing food at the Italian diner, but as soon as they're arraigned on charges they pop up with all sorts of ailments. It gets worse when they're actually convicted. |
|