Former Iraq deputy prime minister Aziz gets family call in prison News
Former Iraq deputy prime minister Aziz gets family call in prison

[JURIST] Iraq's former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz [BBC profile] received a ten-minute telephone call in jail from his family Thursday, his first such contact in over two years, and will see them in person next week, his lawyer Badia Aref said. Aziz said through Aref earlier this week that he would not testify [JURIST report] against former dictator Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] in his upcoming trial [JURIST news archive]. The visit with family members set for August 21 may be the first for a high profile Iraqi prisoner. It is not clear whether other key defendants have received family visitors in the past, but there have been no reports that members of Hussein's exiled family have come to see him in jail, or for that matter had been invited or authorized to do so. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Pope Urban II sparks First Crusade

Pope Urban II threw his support behind what would become the First Crusade on November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clairmont. The Pope urged the council's participants to render aid to the Byzantine Empire, which was being attacked by the Seljuks. Pope Urban called for a wide coalition of rich and poor to combat the threat, which eventually resulted in the conquest of much of the Muslim-controlled Levant by the Crusaders and the establishment of the Crusader States. Read Pope Urban's address.  

Catholic Code of Canon Law revised

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