Tareq Aziz will not testify against Saddam

The former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz will not be a witness against the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before the Iraqi criminal court.

This was announced by Aziz's lawyer, Bade Aref Izzat, with whom he had met for the first time in an American detention. Izzat said "Tareq Aziz told me he will not witness against Saddam Hussein." Aziz told his lawyer during the meeting which lasted for 7 hours that the main detainees "have not met with Saddam." They are held in isolated cells but in the same place and "they meet each other three hours daily."

Izzat said that the meeting was made in the presence of one American military man and that Tareq Aziz "was in a good health condition and his morale are high" and he was wearing a blue uniform of the prison and had a sense of humor.