Paper releases Aziz jail letters

Aziz was 43rd in the US "most wanted" set of 55 playing cards

A British newspaper has published letters which it says were written by former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz in prison.

In the letters released by the Observer and addressed to "world public opinion", he pleads for international help to end "his dire situation".

Mr Aziz is being held at a US-run jail outside Baghdad. Saddam Hussein is reportedly being held in the same base.

In the letters, Mr Aziz says he is innocent and is being held unjustly.

"It is imperative that there is intervention into our dire situation and treatment," he writes in one of the letters, which the Observer says was written on 21 April.

"It is totally in contradiction to international law, the Geneva Convention and Iraqi law as we know it."

Mr Aziz was the face of the former Iraqi regime on the world stage for many years.

As a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, he is accused by Indict - an international organisation seeking the prosecution of former regime leaders - of complicity in war crimes against Iran, Kuwait and his own people.

Isolation claims

Mr Aziz was on the US set of 55 playing cards depicting the "most-wanted" members of the former Iraqi regime.

He surrendered to US forces two years ago. He is due to be tried along with Saddam Hussein and other former ministers.

Mr Aziz calls for fair treatment and a fair trial in the letters, reportedly written on pages from his lawyers' diary.

"I have been accused unjustly, but to date no proper investigation has taken place," he writes in the letters in English and Arabic.

He and other detainees are being kept in total isolation, without contact with their families, the newspaper reports.