BAGHDAD, December 25, 2004 (AFP) - The lawyer for former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, being held for trial on two counts of mass murder, said he would seek his client's freedom for lack of proof.

"On Sunday I will present a petition to the chief of the investigating magistrates on the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) that Tareq Aziz be freed for lack of proof," Badi Aref Izzat told AFP.

"After having met with my client and reviewed the charges against him, I have concluded that there is not sufficient proof to bring him to justice and, consequently, that his detention is illegal," Izzat added.

"No personal claim has been made against him," he said, arguing that the law requires that.

On July 1, Aziz was formally charged alongside his captive colleagues by the IST established by the US-led coalition to try senior members of the former regime.

He was charged with two counts of mass murder, allegedly committed in 1979 and 1991, and punishable by death if he is found guilty.

But Izzat said Aziz strongly denies the charges because he "never participated in these operations and knew nothing about them."

Izzat said he met with Aziz at the US military base where he is being held outside Baghdad along with other high-profile detainees from the regime of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein .

On Thursday, Izzat said that Aziz was unwilling to testify against Saddam at a future war crimes trial.

"Tareq Aziz told me that he will not take the witness stand against Saddam," said Badi Aref Izzat.

The lawyer said that Aziz, who has been in US custody since his surrender in the immediate aftermath of last year's US-led invasion, had had no opportunity to see the ousted president.

The 11 senior aides currently in custody were being held together and were able to see each other for three hours a day but Saddam himself was being held separately, Izzat said.

Aziz is an English-speaking Christian and former foreign minister who was the ousted regime's best known spokesman to the outside world.

Izzat said Aziz insists on his innocence and wants to call longtime information minister Mohammed Said as-Sahhaf and military intelligence chief Saber Abdel Aziz ad-Duri as defence witnesses.