Friday, December 24 2004 09:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Former Iraqi deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz is unwilling to testify against Saddam Hussein at a future war crimes trial, his lawyer told sources after a four-hour meeting with his client yesterday (Dec 23, 2004) at a US base near the capital. "Tareq Aziz told me that he will not take the witness stand against Saddam," said Badi Aref Izzat.

The lawyer said that Aziz, who has been in US custody since his surrender in the immediate aftermath of last year's US-led invasion, had had no opportunity to see the ousted President.

The 11 senior aides currently in custody were being held together and were able to see each other for three hours a day but Saddam himself was being held separately, Izzat said.

Iraqi officials have said that Saddam is being held in Camp Cropper, a US base at Baghdad airport, but Izzat said that he did not know exactly where the others were being detained as he had been taken there in a US armoured personnel carrier.

Aziz, an English-speaking Christian and former Foreign Minister who was the ousted regime's best known spokesman to the outside world, remained "in good health and spirits" despite his 20-month detention, the lawyer said.

Izzat said that Aziz insists on his innocence and wants to call long-time Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf and military intelligence chief Saber Abdel Aziz al-Duri as defence witnesses.

"Any accusation of my involvement in this affair is baseless," the lawyer quoted him as saying.