Tarek Aziz

Mikhail Yuhanna, better known as Tariq Aziz or Tareq Aziz, (Tel Keppe, Iraq, April 28, 1936), was Minister of Foreign Affairs (1983-1991), Deputy Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq (1979-2003), and close advisor of former president Saddam Hussein for decades. His relationship with Saddam began in 1950, when both were militants of the Baaz Socialist Arab Party, then an illegal party.

Aziz on many occasions was the de facto head of government of Iraq abroad, since for security reasons, Saddam Hussein rarely left the country and Tariq Aziz was in charge of representing the State in diplomatic summits.

He is currently being held in the Camp Cropper jail, west of Baghdad, 1 He was acquitted of some charges on March 1, 2009 after a trial, but was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on March 11, 2009 for his role in the executions of forty-two merchants convicted of speculation in 1992.2 Subsequently, in October 2010, he was sentenced by the Supreme Criminal Court to die by hanging for his relationship with the purification of religious parties.