Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf

Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf (طه محيي الدين معروف; 1924 – 7 August 2009) was an Iraqi-Kurdish politician who served as the vice president of Iraq from 1974 until the U.S. invasion in April 2003.

Early life
He was born in 1924 in Sulaymaniyah, into a prominent family in Kurd-dominated northern Iraq.

Political life
Marouf joined the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1968 and held several ministerial posts.

Marouf was an ethnic Kurd in Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party hierarchy, but the Kurdish community viewed his appointment as a mere gesture, believing that he had little real power. However, he did serve as ambassador to Italy, Malta, and Albania.

It was announced that Marouf was taken into custody on 2 May 2003. He had been captured with two other Saddam deputies Abd al-Tawab Mullah Huwaysh, director of the Office of Military Industrialization and a deputy prime minister in charge of arms procurement, and Mizban Khadr Hadi commander of one of four military regions Saddam established on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Marouf was #24 (initially #42) on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis. He was represented by the nine of diamonds in the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards.

He died on 7 August 2009 in Amman, Jordan. He was buried in Erbil, Iraq, the following day.