Abdul Aziz al-Hakim

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Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim
سيد عبدالعزيز الحكيم
President of the Governing Council of Iraq
In office
1 December 2003 – 31 December 2003
Preceded byJalal Talabani
Succeeded byAdnan Pachachi
Personal details
Born(1952-01-01)1 January 1952
United Iraqi Alliance
Supreme Islamic Council

40th Prime Minister of Iraq
)

He was a member of the

assassinated in August 2003 in Najaf
.

Biography

Family tree

Sayyid Abdul Aziz al-Hakim was a member of the Hakim family of Shiite scholars.

Early life

He was born in 1952,

al-Sadr and he was the father of two girls and two boys. His son Muhsin Abdul Aziz al-Hakim was a political adviser for him, and his other son Ammar al-Hakim became the Secretary General of Al-Mihrab Martyr Foundation. Seven of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's brothers were killed, six of them on the orders of Saddam Hussein
.

Iran and SCIRI

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and President Mohammad Khatami, 6 October 2003, Tehran

Al-Hakim played a leading role in the 'Safar Intifada' in Iraq in 1977 and was imprisoned by the Iraqi government in 1972, 1977 and 1979. He went into exile in

Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim
. SCIRI would later change its name to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

Badr Brigades

Within SCIRI, al-Hakim headed its military wing, the Badr Brigades. Badr was officered by Iranians and its troops fought on Iran's side during the Iran–Iraq War.

Iraq

With the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in 2003 with the US-led invasion, Al-Hakim and SCIRI returned to Iraq where they have been major players in Iraq's politics. SCIRI's leader, Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim, was assassinated on 29 August 2003, when a massive

Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf.[2]
Following the murder, Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim became SCIRI's head.

Al-Hakim was the top candidate listed for the

Iraqi legislative election of January 2005 but did not seek a government post because the Alliance had decided not to include theologians in the government.[3]

Interior Ministry

Under Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, SCIRI controlled Iraq's Interior Ministry. In 2006 according to the United Nations human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, said that every month hundreds of Iraqis were being tortured to death or executed by the Interior Ministry under SCIRI's control.

Bayan Jabr
, is a former leader of Sciri's Badr Brigade militia, which is one of the main groups accused of carrying out sectarian killings. Another is the Mehdi Army of the young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is part of the Shia coalition seeking to form a government after winning the mid-December election. Many of the 110,000 policemen and police commandos under the ministry's control are suspected of being former members of the Badr Brigade. Not only counter-insurgency units such as the Wolf Brigade, the Scorpions and the Tigers, but the commandos and even the highway patrol police have been accused of acting as death squads.

The paramilitary commandos, dressed in garish camouflage uniforms and driving around in pick-up trucks, are dreaded in Sunni neighbourhoods. People whom they have openly arrested have frequently been found dead several days later, with their bodies bearing obvious marks of torture.'[5]

U.S. visits

al-Hakim meeting George W. Bush

On 4 December 2006, al-Hakim met with George W. Bush and made a commitment to help end violence,

We have gone a long way to establish a democratic and pluralistic society in Iraq ... We ... [believe in] a government that deals and will deal with all the sources of terrorism regardless where they come from.[6]

Al-Hakim also gave his assessment of the situation in Iraq:

The Iraqi situation has been subjected to a great deal of defamation, and the true picture is not being presented in order to show a dark side of what's happening in Iraq. We see the attempts to defame and distort the situation in Iraq not taking into consideration the democratic steps that that country has taken, writing the constitution and establishing a state that depends heavily on the constitution, that it is unified and that it is strong. There are attempts to show the

sectarian strife
in an attempt to weaken the position in Iraq.

On 5 December 2006, on behalf of

Pope John Paul II Cultural Center. The title of his speech was "Freedom and Tolerance in Shi'a Islam and the Future of Iraq". Notable guests at this event included Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and Rabbi Professor Ephraim Isaac from the Institute of Semitic Studies in Princeton, New Jersey
.

Illness and death

On 16 May 2007 he flew to Houston for medical treatment. Reportedly he had

US occupation of Iraq
.

References and notes

  1. ^ "Profile; Abdul Aziz al-Hakim : a heavy heritage". CERMAM. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  2. ^ Escobar, Pepe (2 September 2003). "Ayatollah's killing: Winners and losers". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 2 October 2003. Retrieved 27 January 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ^ "Iraqi Election Catapults Critic of U.S. to Power". Archived from the original on 24 July 2008.
  4. ^ "Iraq's death squads: on the brink of civil war" The Independent, 26 Feb. 2006
  5. ^ "Iraq's death squads: on the brink of civil war", The Independent, 26 Feb. 2006
  6. ^ "President Bush Meets with His Eminence Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, Leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
  7. ^ "Forbes.com". Forbes.
  8. ^ http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5943571 [dead link]
  9. ^ Sly, Liz (27 August 2009). "Iraq Shiite leader Abdelaziz Hakim dies". Los Angeles Times.
  10. ^ Iraq's Shiite leader Hakim buried in Najaf AFP, 29 August 2009.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Islamic Supreme Council
2003–2009 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by President of the Governing Council of Iraq
2003 		Succeeded by
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