Tareq Aziz son denies father's death

ROME, Oct 9 (AFP) - A son of Iraq's former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz under Saddam Hussein told a contact Saturday his father was alive, denying television reports of his death, the Italian news agency Ansa said.
The son, Ziad, confirmed to a French monk and friend of the family, Jean Marie Benjamin, in Amman that his father was still alive, Ansa added.
Benjmain is understood to have good contacts with the family who are Iraqi Christians.
Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television said that Aziz had died in custody, quoting sources in the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iraq.
Benjamin was in Amman with Ziad and his family when the report of the death appeared, Ansa said.
Contacted by the agency in Amman, Benjamin said: "Ziad personally got in touch with Baghdad where the news of his father's death was denied."
Benjamin represents a religious foundation at Assisi in Italy. He organised a trip by Tareq Aziz to Rome in 2003, when Aziz was received by Pope John Paul II, on the eve of the US-led invasion of Iraq.