Iraq's 'Chemical Ali' gets second death sentence
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An Iraqi court has condemned Iraq's notorious "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid to death over his role in Saddam Hussein's brutal crushing of a 1991 Shiite uprising, his second death sentence.
The court also imposed the death penalty on Abdulghani Abdul Ghafor al-Ani, the head of Saddam's Baath party in southern Iraq at the time.
Majid and two others - Sultan Hashim al-Tai, a former defence minister, and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, former armed forces deputy chief of operations - were sentenced to death in June 2007 for crimes against humanity committed during Saddam's brutal 1988 campaign against Iraq's Kurds.
But the other two officials received lesser sentences on Tuesday (local time), with Tai ordered to serve 15 years in prison and Tikriti life in jail.
Another three senior former officials received life sentences and another five were sentenced to 15 years in jail.
Three defendants were acquitted.
The officials were charged for their role in the killing of tens of thousands of people killed during the uprising that followed Saddam's defeat by United States forces in the 1991 Gulf War.
- AFP
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