MOSCOW. Nov 3 (Interfax) - The Russian State Duma issued a statement on Tuesday to express its concern and regret over the fact that the Iraqi Supreme Court has sentenced former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz to death.
The Duma said, in particular, that the death sentence for Tariq Aziz, "apart from going against the current trend toward humanizing the law, would make it impossible to determine a lot of true facts in Iraq's modern history, including the motives of behavior of the previous Iraqi leadership, the U.S. and other states that were involved in the dramatic events in the Persian Gulf at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century."
"Regardless of the attitudes toward Saddam Hussein's regime and the degree of Aziz's personal responsibility for his deeds, an execution of an ill and elderly man could become a factor further splitting Iraqi society and exacerbating discord in it amid a search for a sovereign way of its democratic development," says the statement 'On the Imposition of the Death Sentence on Tariq Aziz'.
The Duma proceeds from understanding that the tragic events in the history of Iraq, which has undergone several bloody wars and conflicts over the past decades, are still dividing Iraqi society and "are waiting for an impartial, time-tested and unprejudiced judgment."
"Surely, an evaluation of the latest events in Iraq, which have become known to the international community, requires the same approach," the Duma said.
The Russian parliamentarians called for considering the U.S.' declared intention to withdraw its troops from Iraq and delegate power to the Iraqi people and pointed out that any attempts to establish democracy through violating human rights are doomed to failure.
The Duma decided to send the statement to the Iraqi National Assembly, the Russian leadership, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and a number of other international organizations.