Aziz back in prison after check

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6910331.stm

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The health of Saddam Hussein's foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, is said to be "normal" after an incident at the jail where he is being held near Baghdad.

He was moved to a hospital in Balad for a scan after falling on Tuesday and sent back to prison on Thursday, the US military said.

His son Ziad said the 71-year-old ex-minister should not be in custody at all, having never been charged.

Mr Aziz had been due to face questioning by a judge on Wednesday.

He was being investigated over the murder of Muslim clerics following the first Gulf War in 1991.

Ziad Aziz said his father had told him by telephone that he was in "intensive care" while his lawyer, Badie Arif Ezzat, said that he had fainted repeatedly on Tuesday.

In January last year, Mr Ezzat told the BBC that his client had suffered a stroke and had barely a month to live.

In a statement released to the BBC News website on Saturday, the coalition said he had fallen during a walk.

"All studies came back normal for a person Mr Aziz's age... and [he] is currently in the same health and with the same functional status as he was prior to his fall," it added.

Tariq Aziz, for many years the face of Iraq around the world, was taken into custody in April 2003 after he gave himself up to US forces.