Iraqi Aviation Official: Tariq Aziz's Body Still at Baghdad Airport

An Iraqi aviation official stated that the body of Tariq Aziz, former deputy of Saddam Hussein, remains under heavy security measures at Baghdad Airport. According to the Associated Press, a formal official from Iraq's aviation organization said on Friday, June 22, that Aziz's body was supposed to be transferred to Jordan a day earlier, but the transfer was delayed due to the lack of certain official documents. Zainab, Tariq Aziz's daughter, claimed on Thursday that her father's body was abducted during the transfer to Jordan for burial. However, the Iraqi official denied this, stating that Aziz's body would be transferred to Jordan by a royal Jordanian aircraft late on Friday. The family of the former deputy of Saddam Hussein has been residing in Jordan for years. They have made significant efforts in recent years to transfer their father, who was imprisoned in Iraq, to Jordan under the pretext of health issues and old age, but they were unsuccessful. Tariq Aziz, a leader of the Ba'ath Party, deputy to Saddam Hussein, and one of the closest officials to the former Iraqi president, passed away on June 15 at the age of 79. He was one of the few Christians in Iraq who managed to reach the highest levels of government during Saddam Hussein's regime. After the fall of the Ba'ath regime, he was imprisoned in Iraq for a long time until he was sentenced to death in 2010. However, Jalal Talabani, the then-President of Iraq, refrained from signing his death sentence, and he ultimately died in a hospital in Nasiriyah.