Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim

Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi (1933 – January 27, 2012)^[1] was an Iraqi politician who was a Deputy Prime Minister and twice Minister of Finance under the government of Saddam Hussein.

Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim
Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq
In office 1985–1987
President	Saddam Hussein
Preceded by	Hassan Tawfiq Al-Najafi
Succeeded by	Subhi Nadhem Frankool
Minister of Finance
In office May 1994 – April 2003
President	Saddam Hussein
Preceded by	Ahmad Husayn Khudayir as-Samarrai
Deputy Prime Minister
Personal details
Born	1933
Died	12 January 2012
Nationality	Iraqi
Occupation	Economist

Azzawi originally trained as an economist. He was arrested in 1960 protesting against the government of Iraqi General Abd al-Karim Qasim.^[2] He joined the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1968 and was named undersecretary of state for Commerce. He was fired from all his official designations in 1982 and demised to low administrative job and expelled from the party, until the 1985 when he became Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq,^[3] in April, 1987 he was humiliated in a public meeting and severely dismissed for refusing to transfer a large sum of money at the demand of one of the Saddam's uncles.^[2]

President Saddam Hussein forced him back into the position of Minister of Finance in 1995.^[4]

In July 1999, he was given the honorary title of Deputy Prime Minister.^[2][4] After the United States-led Invasion of Iraq in 2003, he was listed as number 45 (8 of Diamonds) on the Iraqi most-wanted playing cards. He was peacefully detained from his house in Baghdad on April 19, 2003 by Iraqi police and handed over to the US military.^[5]

He died, aged 79, in prison due to lack of his heart medications. A government spokesman said his health had been deteriorating because of aging,^[1] although another cited cancer as the cause of death.^[4]