BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court yesterday condemned Saddam Hussein’s notorious henchman Ali Hassan Al-Majid, better known as “Chemical Ali”, to his third death sentence over the murder of Shiites 10 years ago.
However, the Iraqi High Tribunal acquitted former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, 73, long regarded as Saddam’s spokesman to the outside world, on the same charges of crimes against humanity. Al-Majid, a former defense minister and cousin of the executed dictator, was condemned to death for “premeditated murders and crimes against humanity.” “Chemical Ali” and Aziz were accused with 12 other officials of Saddam’s regime of involvement in the deaths of dozens of Shiites in 1999 in the Sadr City district of Baghdad and in the central city of Najaf.
Troops were ordered to stop public protests after the assassination of religious leader Mohammed Sadeq Al-Sadr, after whom Sadr City is named.
Among the 12 other officials, former army officer Mahmud Faizi Al-Hazaa and senior Baath Party official Aziz Saleh Hassan were also condemned to death. Seven others were given jail sentences of between six years and life imprisonment. Three were acquitted.
Al-Majid was sentenced to death in June 2007 for genocide after ordering the deaths of tens of thousands of Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign, when Iraqi forces strafed villages with poison gas, the source of his grim nickname.
He was also given a second death penalty for war crimes and crimes against humanity over a bloody crackdown on Shiites during their ill-fated uprising after the 1991 Gulf War. His execution has been repeatedly delayed and he remains in US custody. He and Aziz are due to be sentenced in another case on March 11.
