Al-Mashreq: Tareq Aziz contacts his family

The defendant lawyer for the former Iraqi deputy premier Tareq Aziz on Sunday announced that his client was able two days ago to talk on the telephone with his family for the first time since he was arrested by the American occupation forces in 2003.

Al-Mashreq newspaper quoted lawyer Bade Aref as saying that "the American authorities permitted Tareq Aziz on Friday to talk via telephone with his family for the first time since his detention and while the American forces permitted personal stuffs sent by his family including garments, cigarettes, medicines and dates."

Aref said that "it is the first time in which the American authorities permit one of the detainees of the list which includes senior officials of the former regime to talk to the family by telephone."

On May 29, the UK's Observer publication reported a plea by Aziz, that he was being prevented from seeing his family. The report indicated that Aziz is being held for issues related to the Oil-For-Food program. The report qoutes Aziz saying "We are totally isolated from the world. There are 13 other detainees here, but we have no meetings or telephone contacts wth our families. I have been accused unjustly, but to date no proper investigation has taken place. It is imperative that there is intervention into our dire situation and treatment. It is totally in contradiction to international law, the Geneva Convention and Iraqi law as we know it."