June 24, 2007
'Chemical Ali' Defiant
as he Receives Death Sentence
Baghdad/Cairo
Iraq's special tribunal Sunday found five defendants guilty in the
late-1980s campaign against the Kurds, sentencing three to death and
two to life prison terms. A sixth man was acquitted for lack of
evidence.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein better known as
"Chemical Ali", was sentenced to death for his role in the genocide
against Kurds in the infamous Anfal (Spoils) campaign waged by
Saddam Hussein's Baath regime as the Iraq-Iran War was nearing its
end.
Also sentenced to death were former defence minister Sultan Hashim
Ahmad and former assistant to the Iraqi army's chief of staff,
general Hussein Rashid Mohamed al-Takriti.
The court served life prison terms to Sabir Abdel-Aziz al-Douri,
former chief of military intelligence during the Anfal Campaign, and
Farhan Motlek al-Jabouri, also a top military intelligence figure.
One defendant, Taher Tawfiq al-A'ni, who was the governor of Mosul
at the time of the campaign, was acquitted for insufficient
evidence.
While listening as the judge read out the sentence, al-Majid
interrupted him with shouts of "Long live the Baath Party," and
"Long live the glorious Iraqi army."
The trial began in August 2006. Sunday's session was its 61st
session, dedicated to sentencing the six top defendants. A total of
432 defendants are standing trial in the Anfal Case.
When the trial started, Saddam was also one of the accused, but he
was hanged last December 30 on a guilty verdict from his trial for
the massacre of Shias in Dujail in 1982.
An estimated 180,000 Kurds were killed in Saddam's drive under the
code-name Anfal, when the Iraqi army allegedly carried out a
scorched-earth campaign, including poison gas attacks, against
hundreds of villages in the Kurdish region in 1987-1988.
During the trial al-Majid insisted on his innocence despite a mass
of eyewitness, tape recordings and documented evidence against him.
He said he was only carrying out Saddam's orders or else he himself
would have been killed.
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