"It will definitely take place, and it will take place after the Americans leave Iraq," Saad Yousif al-Muttalibi said in an interview in Baghdad.

A lawyer for Aziz, who served as foreign minister and later deputy prime minister, said he was surprised. "I did not expect the government would be that stupid; by doing this they will drag this country to the edge of the abyss," said Badi Arif in a telephone interview.

Aziz was captured by US forces in April 2003, shortly after the US-led invasion that toppled Hussein. He appeared frail when he testified in Hussein's 2006 trial on war crimes charges, for which the ousted leader was hanged later that year.

Aziz was sentenced to death in October 2010 by the Iraqi High Tribunal for his role in eliminating religious parties during Hussein's regime.

His family was shocked by the verdict, his daughter told CNN at the time.

"My father served his country for more than 22 years. He delivered himself to the US Army (after the fall of Hussein) because he wasn't afraid. He didn't do anything wrong. He served his country," Aziz's daughter, Zainab Aziz, said.

CNN