‘Chemical Ali’ Is Sentenced To Hang
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
IRBIL, Iraq — Saddam Hussein’s cousin, “Chemical Ali,” was sentenced to death yesterday for a campaign of genocide that killed 180,000 members of Iraq’s Kurdish minority.
Lawyers for Ali Hassan al-Majid said they would appeal against the ruling by the Baghdad tribunal, delaying his execution for at least a month. Mr. Majid will be joined on the gallows by Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, Saddam’s defense minister, and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, an army commander. Two military intelligence officials were jailed for life.
As the verdict was read, Mr. Majid — who made no apology for his actions — nodded his head, smiled, and muttered: “Obviously.”
He earned his nickname for ordering the killing with chemical weapons of 5,000 Kurds in Halabja.
Kurdish leaders described the conviction as a historic ruling that had brought justice for the dead.
Mohammad Ihsan, a Kurdish minister, welcomed the judgment by the high tribunal in Baghdad as final recognition by the Iraqi state of the guilt of Saddam Hussein’s regime in the persecution of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Kurds.
