Iraq’s ‘Chemical Ali’ sentenced to death

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi court Sunday sentenced former senior Iraqi official Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as “Chemical Ali”, to death for his role in the 1988 massacre in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja.

Around five thousand were killed by poison gas in Halabja, while an estimated 100,000 Kurds were killed in the Anfal campaign against Iraq’s Kurds.

Iraq’s Supreme Criminal Court also sentenced Farhan Motalk al-Juburi, the former chief of intelligence in the northern zone, to 10 years in jail, the Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported.

Former Minister of Defence Sultan Hashim Ahmed, and Saber Abdulaziz al-Dori, the former chief of military intelligence during the Halabja campaign, were given 15-year sentences.

Al-Majid, who was listed as the fifth most-wanted man in Iraq after the US invasion in 2003, was captured in August of that year. He earned the name “Chemical Ali” for his use of poison gas against the Kurdish villagers during the Anfal campaign.

The former intelligence chief and defence minister has been sentenced to death more than once before for crimes committed while in office. In March, he was sentenced to death for the 1999 crackdown on Shiite Iraqis.