Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi

Who is Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi?

Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi was an Iraqi politician who was a Deputy Prime Minister and twice Finance Minister under the government of Saddam Hussein.

Azzawi originally trained as an economist. He was arrested in 1960 protesting against the government of Iraqi General Abd al-Karim Qasim. He joined the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1968 and was named undersecretary of state for Commerce. In the mid-1970s he became Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, but he was allegedly dismissed when he refused to transfer a large sum of money at the demand of one of the President's uncles.

President Saddam Hussein appointed him Finance Minister in 1995. However, he was dismissed in 1998 after a disagreement with Hussein's children Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, allegedly when he refused to transfer a large sum of money abroad.

He was reappointed as Finance Minister in July 1999 and then as Deputy Prime Minister. After the United States-led Invasion of Iraq in 2003, he was listed as number 45 on the Iraqi most-wanted playing cards. He was captured on April 19, 2003 by Iraqi police and handed over to the US military.

He died, aged 79, being transferred from prison to hospital. A government spokesman said his health had been deteriorating because of aging, although another cited cancer as the cause of death.