Iraq's 'Chemical Ali' sentenced to death for poison gas attack on Kurdish city
BAGHDAD — Saddam Hussein's notorious henchman "Chemical Ali" was sentenced to death on Sunday for ordering the gassing of Kurds in the Iraqi town of Halabja, a brutal attack that killed an estimated 5,000 people.
Ali Hassan al-Majid is to die by hanging, having been found guilty of the atrocity in the northeast of the country as the Iran-Iraq war drew to a close in 1988, an iconic moment that symbolised the barbarity of Saddam's regime.
The ruling, shown on the state-run Al-Iraqiya television channel, is the fourth time that Majid, better known by his macabre nickname, has received a death sentence.
Judge Abud Mustapha al-Hamani branded Majid's offences as "deliberate murder, a crime against humanity" when the verdict was delivered amid muffled applause in the courtroom.
"Al hamdulillah, Al hamdulillah (praise be to God)," said Majid, who stood stone-faced in the dock in a traditional black- and gold-coloured Arab robe and black and white keffiyeh headdress, before the broadcast ended abruptly.
Three-quarters of the victims at Halabja were women and children, in what is thought to be the deadliest ever gas attack carried out against civilians.
"I am happy at the decision but I am sad also as the court did not consider his crime to be genocide, as we did," said Omeed Hamaa Ali, 37, a Halabja resident who lost his mother, three brothers and three sisters in the attack.
Ali was among dozens of people who gathered at a cemetery in the town following the verdict where they played music and cheered in celebration.
"This judgement is a victory for all Iraqis, humanity and the Kurds because Halabja is the biggest crime of modern times," said Majid Hamad Amin, minister of the martyrs and displaced in the Kurdish regional government.
Majid was given an additional 15 year sentence for "false displacement and disappearing of civilians."
Three other men were also convicted for their role in the Halabja attacks.
Sultan Hashem Ahmed, a former defence minister, and Saber Abdul Aziz Hussein al-Duri, a former intelligence chief, were sentenced to 15 years in jail.
Farhan Mutlak al-Juburi, a former Iraqi army chief, was ordered to serve 10 years.
A close cousin of Saddam, Majid earned his ghastly moniker for ordering poisonous gas attacks in a brutal scorched-earth campaign of bombings and mass deportations that left an estimated 182,000 Kurds dead in the 1980s.
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