Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, the public face of Saddam Hussein's regime, went on trial yesterday over the execution of dozens of merchants for price gouging in 1992.

Looking frail and weak in a brown suit and walking stick, Mr Aziz entered the courtroom with six other defendants before Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman opened the tribunal. It was the first time the 72-year-old Aziz, who also served as Foreign Minister under Saddam, has answered any charges since he surrendered to US forces in April 2003.

The merchants were accused of hiking prices of key goods in breach of state price controls when Iraq was under UN sanctions imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Mr Aziz's lawyer, Badie Arif, called the charges against his client "a farce".

"Keeping him in the prison for five years has embarrassed the government. There is international pressure... and so they had to present him as a defendant," he said. "Legally, there's no case, but we can't predict how politics will influence it."

The only Christian in Saddam's inner circle, Mr Aziz rose to prominence in the world media around the time of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War.