URGENT / source denies al-Hakim’s clinical death

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A source close to the family of Abdulaziz al-Hakim denied on Wednesday rumors about his clinical death, noting that a special medial team is treating him. “Any development about his health condition will be announced through mass media,” the source told Iraqi News. Al-Furat satellite channel had said earlier that the health of the Shiite leader, who is being treated for lung cancer in a Tehran hospital, is seriously deteriorating. Hakim, 60, was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after he developed a “medical complication”. He has been in Tehran for more than four months for treatment. The Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), led by al-Hakim since the assassination of his elder brother Mohamed Baqer al-Hakim in an explosion in Najaf in 2003, had announced that al-Hakim was transferred to a hospital in Tehran after suffering health problems. The SIIC returned to Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion and has since become one of the pillars of the country’s governing coalition. SH (P) 1