DEATHWATCH ~ Iraq's 'Chemical Ali', Ali Hassan al-Majid, sentenced to hang
The Kentucky Wizard
to Saddam Hussein, including the man known as "Chemical Ali," to death by
hanging for their role in a 1980s genocide campaign that killed up to
100,000 Kurds.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, Hussein's first cousin, earned his nickname for
atrocities committed in a military campaign code-named Operation Anfal
during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.
In the scorched earth attacks, poisonous gas and chemicals were used against
the Kurds.
Also sentenced to death was Sultan Hashem Ahmed, Iraqi army commander during
the war with Iran. In 1988, he was named chief-in-charge of the Anfal
operation.
The third defendant to hang is Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy
general commander of the Iraqi armed force, assistant chief of staff for
military operations, and former Republican Guard commander.
Life sentences were give to Farhan Jubouri -- former head of military
intelligence in northern Iraq -- and Saber Abdel Aziz al-Douri -- director
of military intelligence during the Anfal campaign and a one-time mayor of
Baghdad.
All five plan to appeal their sentences, chief defense attorney Khalil
al-Dulaimi told CNN.
"Iraq is under occupation and the judicial system is illegal, (unjust) and
not independent," al-Dulaimi said.
A sixth defendant -- the former governor of the region where the gas attacks
occurred -- was cleared on all charges. Chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon
had requested that Taher Tawfiq al-Ani be acquitted because of lack of
evidence.
Hussein was also a defendant in the Anfal trial, but was hanged late last
year after being convicted in a separate trial. The Anfal trial began August
21, 2006. Hussein, who also was charged with genocide, was ousted from power
after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. He was executed December 30 after his
conviction in the 1982 killings in the Shiite town of Dujail.
The Anfal trial resumed a week after Hussein's hanging.
Another trial, yet to begin, is for genocide and crimes against humanity for
the brutal suppression of an uprising of the Shiites in the south after the
first Gulf War, known by Shiites as the Shaabaniyah uprising because it
happened during the Islamic month of Shaaban.
--
Never argue with an idiot; they'll drag you down to their level and beat you
with experience.
© The Wiz ®
«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»