Former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz and 25 other jailed members of Saddam Hussein's former regime were transferred from the US military to Iraqi authorities, a government spokesman said on Wednesday. Ali al-Dabbagh said Aziz was among 26 convicts moved from Camp Cropper, a US- army run detention centre, to Khadimiyah jail in the capital, ahead of a ceremony on Thursday in which control of Cropper will be handed to Iraq. In addition, 'Saddam Hussein's former secretary Abed Hmoud, the former Interior Minister Mohammed Zumam and former Oil Minister Amir Mohammed Rashid,' were transferred to the Iraqi-run facility, said spokesman Dabbagh. Aziz's Amman-based lawyer Badie Aref told selfnews the former deputy premier's life was at risk following the move on Tuesday night. 'Aziz called me and said he was being held in the Khadimiyah prison in Baghdad,' Aref said, calling for intervention from international organisations. 'He should have been released. What the Americans did violates the Red Cross code because they handed him over to his enemies. His life is in danger now.' Aref added that Aziz told him US President Barack Obama 'is no different to (former US president George) Bush, and that he will take part in killing us, indirectly.' Aziz, 73, turned himself in to US forces in April 2003 and is one of Saddam's few surviving cohorts. The late dictator's chief henchman Ali Hassan al-Majid -- better known as 'Chemical Ali' -- was hanged in January for a poison gas attack against Kurds in 1988. Aziz was appointed deputy premier in 1991 under Saddam, having previously been foreign minister. In 2009, he was jailed for 15 years for murder and was given a seven-year term in August 2009 for his role in expelling Kurds from Iraq's north. The family of Aziz, who had reportedly already had two heart attacks since turning himself in after Saddam's ouster, has repeatedly called for his release on health grounds. The former Iraqi official hails from a Chaldean Catholic family. He was being held at Cropper, which has around 1,600 prisoners, and where despite Thursday's handover around 200 high value detainees will stay under US control, Dabbagh said. General Ray Odierno, the commander of US forces in Iraq, had previously outlined the prisoner agreement. 'There are some very significant Al-Qaeda and other individuals that they have asked us to hold on to,' Odierno told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday. 