BAGHDAD: Lawyers for Tareq Aziz, the longtime international face of Saddam Hussein's regime, said Monday they will seek a presidential pardon to spare him from execution. Attorney Giovanni Di Stefano said Aziz's defense team would ask for the pardon instead of appealing his death sentence last month for Saddam-era persecution of political parties. It is a risky legal move, considering Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has granted few, if any, pardons in his more than five-year tenure and could be prevented from doing so in this case. Aziz was the only Christian in Saddam's inner circle. “This could be the diplomatic solution people have been waiting for,” Di Stefano said in an interview Monday. Aziz “does not want special treatment because he is a Christian,” said Di Stefano, who is based in Italy. “He seeks the pardon as a step toward reconciliation of Iraq. Enough people have been killed, enough people have been executed.” Last week, the Iraqi president said he will not sign Aziz's death warrant, saying he believed it was wrong to execute the 74-year-old man. The only execution Talabani has tried to block – that of Saddam's defense minister, Sultan Hashim Al-Taie – has been delayed for three years. But there are ways in Iraq's constitution to bypass the president in capital cases – such as an act of parliament or the approval of one of Talabani's deputies. Additionally, the president can only grant pardons “on the recommendation of the prime minister.” In this case, that would be Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, whose Shiite Dawa party was the main victim of the crimes Aziz was convicted of committing.
