The trial of Tariq Aziz, one of the best-known faces of executed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein regime, is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, AFP reports. Aziz and other seven defendants are accused overseeing the execution of 42 merchants from Baghdad in 1992.

According to an Iraqi official close to the court, the trial would start at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, six hours later than expected. Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman told journalists the trial was delayed as the accused had not reached the courthouse.

“There will be a delay because of procedural reasons. The defendants have to be brought from another place ... they are not in the courthouse,” said Rahman, the judge who sentenced Saddam to hang in 2006.

Aziz was Hussein's deputy premier before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He was last seen in public in 2006 during Hussein's trial and is said to be in poor health. It seems he has diabetes and high blood pressure, his left leg is nearly paralyzed and he suffered a heart attack in 2000. Aziz is being held at Camp Cropper, a U.S. military base in Baghdad, CNN reports.

In 1992, 42 merchants from Baghdad had to attend a meeting at the Interior Ministry, but when they got there, they were accused for a rise in prices, given a one-day trial and sentenced to death. However, Aziz’s attorney, Badie Aref, declared his client had nothing to do with the executions. Azis “is being punished for problems he had with (former U.S. Secretary of State) James Baker in the early 1990s,” Aref claimed.

If convicted, Tariq Aziz faces the death penalty.