Iraqi Court Confirms “Chemical Ali” Death Sentence

Three former senior officials under the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein could be executed within a month after the country’s highest court upheld their death sentences for  genocide and crimes against humanity, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Aug. 21).

“The Iraqi Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence on Ali Hassan al-Majid, Sultan Hashim al-Tai and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti,” said top Judge Aref Shaheen.

Al-Majid earned the nickname “Chemical Ali” for ordering the use of chemical weapons to kill thousands of Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s.  Al-Tai served as the regime’s defense minister and al-Tikriti was the deputy operations chief operations for Iraq’s armed forces.

“Thousands of people were killed, displaced and disappeared,” Iraqi High Tribunal chief judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah said in June, after announcing his decision to sentence the three men to death for their role in the 1988 Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds.

“They were civilians with no weapons and nothing to do with war,” he said.

Under Iraqi law, the men are expected to be hanged within 30 days (Salam Faraj, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 4).

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