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'Chemical Ali' executed in Iraq for ordering gassing of Kurdish village

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Iraqi officials on Monday executed Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali," for ordering the Kurdish village of Halabja gassed in 1988. Government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh stated that al-Majid had committed crimes of mass murder and premeditated bodily harm against the Iraqi population. Al-Majid was convicted earlier this month of ordering the gassing and sentenced to death. The gassing, which killed 5,000 Kurds, was part of the wider Anfal campaign against Kurds in Iraq during the Saddam Hussein regime, and is considered one of the worst attacks on the ethnic minority. Al-Majid had received three prior death sentences. In March, al-Majid received his third death sentence for his role in the 1999 killings of protesters who rioted in Baghdad and Amarah following the alleged assassination of Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr. In December 2008, the Tribunal sentenced al-Majid to death for his involvement in the repression of Shiites in southern Iraq during the Saddam regime. Al-Majid was also sentenced to death for another killing of Kurdish Iraqis using chemical weapons during the Anfal campaign.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 25, 2010 (boomark / email).