In an interview with the Doha-based Aljazeera satellite television, Aref appealed to the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki to allow him to visit Iraq to meet Aziz and obtain from him "very important legal information.”
Aref said that Aziz called him on telephone to tell him that he was transferred by the US troops to the Kazmiah prison in Baghdad, which is controlled by Iraqi forces and that he was in “bad health conditions.”
“I am sure they are going to kill me either directly or indirectly by poison because they know I have very important data and they are concerned over the possibility of leaking them,” Aref quoted Aziz as saying.
“He asked me to come to Iraq to meet him and get this important information. In my turn, I appeal to Prime Minister Al-Maliki, regardless of our differences, to permit met to travel to Iraq to meet Aziz,” the lawyer said.
Aref said that Aziz used to receive good treatment from “sympathizers” in the US forces which he refused to disclose.
Aziz, who also served as Iraqi foreign minister, handed himself to the US forces after their invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was sentenced in 2009 to 15 years in jail for murder and seven more for his role in expelling ethnic Kurds from northern Iraq.
