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=> Vatican helps Saddam deputy fight war case

Vatican helps Saddam deputy fight war case
Posted by Tiglath (Guest) - Sunday, December 12 2004, 23:44:01 (CET)
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Vatican helps Saddam deputy fight war case
December 13, 2004

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London: Saddam Hussein's former foreign minister and deputy prime minister has persuaded sympathisers in the Vatican to arrange free legal advice for his defence against war crimes.

Tariq Aziz, a practising Christian, secured the services of Italian lawyers after contacting a group of Catholic priests and bishops.

e wrote to his family from jail in Baghdad urging them to get in touch with Jean-Marie Benjamin, a left-wing priest who had previously brokered a meeting between Aziz and the Pope before the invasion last year. Father Benjamin, who has said he is acting with the Vatican's unofficial blessing, is orchestrating religious and legal support for Aziz.

The campaign also has the backing of Monsignor Emmanuel Delly, the Patriarch of Baghdad and spiritual leader of Iraq's 500,000-strong Chaldean branch of the Catholic Church, which Aziz belongs to.

The church's involvement in Aziz's defence could prove embarrassing for Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, whose government supported the US-led invasion and has about 3000 troops in Iraq.

Supporters of Aziz say he was only a diplomat but the British and Americans believe his role as apologist for Saddam's regime makes him culpable.

Father Benjamin, 58, a former executive of the United Nations Children's Fund, which campaigned against sanctions on Iraq, said: "Aziz was a friend of mine and was a diplomat - not a military man.

"He asked his family to contact me last July for help for the co-ordination of the defence, and when I talked with my bishops and superiors they said yes, morally you have the right to do so. The solicitors will be working for free, as the family lack the funds to pay for his defence."

The Vatican encourages priests to carry out unofficial initiatives as a way of tackling sensitive diplomatic issues.

Father Benjamin received a letter from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, thanking him for "building links with Iraqis and the wider Arab world".

The Telegraph, London



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