'Chemical Ali' sentenced to death over Halabja poison gas attack

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Latest conviction of Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid means fourth death sentence for atrocities
Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali, has been convicted of crimes against humanity. Photograph: Darko Vojinovic/AP

Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" was convicted today of crimes against humanity, receiving a death sentence for his involvement in a poison gas attack on Halabja, Iraq.

Families of victims in court cheered when the judge handed down the guilty verdict against Ali Hassan al-Majid in a trial for one of the worst poisonous gas attacks against civilians.

He has already received three previous death sentences for atrocities committed during Saddam's rule, particularly in the government's campaigns against the Shias and Kurds in the 1980s and 1990s.

Other officials in Saddam's regime received jail terms for their roles in the 1988 attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja near the Iranian border.

Former defence minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie faces 15 years in prison, as does Iraq's former director of military intelligence, Sabir Azizi al-Douri.

Farhan Mutlaq al-Jubouri, a former top military intelligence official, was sentenced to 10 years.


Nazik Tawfiq, 45, a Kurdish woman who said she lost six of her relatives in the attack came to court alone to hear the sentence. She fell to her knees and began to pray on hearing the verdict against Majid. "I am so happy today," Tawfiq said. "Now the souls of our victims will rest in peace."

The man known as "Chemical Ali" was previously sentenced to hang for his role in a brutal crackdown against the Kurds in the late 1980s, known as the Anfal, that killed hundreds of thousands.

Courts later issued separate death sentences for his role in the 1991 suppression of a Shia uprising and for a 1999 crackdown that sought to quell a Shia backlash to the killing of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad al-Sadr.

The earlier death sentences against al-Majid have not been carried out because they are tied to a political dispute involving Taie, who was also sentenced to death along with Chemical Ali in the Anfal trial.

Vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, have both refused to sign the execution order against Taie, who signed the ceasefire with US-led forces that ended the 1991 Gulf war. Taie is a Sunni Arab viewed by many as a respected career soldier who was forced to follow Saddam's orders in the purges against Kurds.

The three-member presidency council must approve all death sentences, and the failure to find agreement on Taie delayed the execution of Majid as well.

Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia, has pushed the presidency council to approve the death sentences pending against Majid and Taie.

Taie surrendered to US forces in September 2003 after weeks of negotiations. His defence has claimed the Americans had promised Taie "protection and good treatment" before he turned himself in.

Many Sunni Arabs saw his sentence as evidence that Shia and Kurdish officials are persecuting their once-dominant minority, using their influence over the judiciary.

Another reason for the delay is that the Kurds from Halabja have also been pushing to have their day in court with Majid.