Tareq Aziz Faces New Charges In Iraq

Former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz listens to the verdict read by Iraqi High Tribunal in March 2009.

A lawyer for Iraq's jailed former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz said says his client has gone on trial on new charges related to "wasting public funds."

Badie Aref, an attorney based in Amman, Jordan, says he has been contacted by the Iraqi justice Ministry about the case. He says Aziz and 15 other people were taken to court on July 17 to face the new charges.

Aziz, 73, turned himself in to U.S. forces in April 2003 and is one of Saddam's few surviving top cohorts. He was appointed deputy premier in 1991, having previously served as foreign minister.

In 2009, he was jailed for 15 years for murder and given a seven-year term in August 2009 for his role in expelling Kurds from Iraq's north.

compiled from agency reports