Iraq - Chemical Ali Among Those Sentenced To Death For Halabja Massacre

(24 Jun 2007) 527274 AP TELEVISION/POOL Baghdad/Halabja - 24 June 2007 1. Wide of Ali Hassan al-Majid, Hussein Rashid Mohammed, Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, Sabir al-Douri, Taher Tawfiq al-Ani and Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai in dock 2. Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa 3. Ali Hassan al-Majid 4. Ali Hassan al-Majid (Chemical Ali) Halabja north of Baghdad 5. Sign reading: ''Welcome to Halabja'' 6. Gravestones and monument representing man disfigured due to chemicals 7. Man reciting verses from Holy Quran STORYLINE: An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced Saddam Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, and two other former regime officials to death by hanging for their roles in a 1980s scorched-earth campaign that led to the deaths of 180-thousand Kurds. Al-Majid, the former head of the Baath Party's Northern Bureau Command, trembled and stood silently as the judge read the verdict. The judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, said al-Majid was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for ordering army and security services to use chemical weapons in a large-scale offensive that killed or maimed thousands. Saddam's cousin is better known as "Chemical Ali", a nickname he earned for his alleged use of chemical weapons. Saddam's former defence minister and his armed forces deputy director were also sentenced to hang for their roles in the so-called "Operation Anfal" campaign. The judge sent former minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai to the gallows after ruling that the defendant ordered a large-scale attack against civilians and used chemical weapons and deportation against the Kurds. The former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces, Hussein Rashid Mohammed, was sentenced to death after he was convicted of drawing up military plans and other allegations against the Kurds. Two other former regime officials - Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office, and former director of military intelligence under Saddam Hussein and Sabir al-Douri, were sentenced to life in prison. The judge announced that the charges had been dropped against Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, the former governor of Mosul and head of the Northern Affairs Committee, because of insufficient evidence. That decision had been expected as the prosecutor had requested that al-Ani be released. Kurds welcomed the verdicts as their chance to taste vengeance, although the case did not deal with the most notorious gassing - the March 1988 attack on the northern city of Halabja that killed an estimated five thousand Kurds. A Kurdish resident of Halabja, scene of a notorious chemical attack which claimed the lives of thousands, said he wanted al-Majid and his co-defendants to be executed in the cemetery where many of the victims are buried. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/81ecd27e96ce577d9909723ccb74f290 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork