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Iraq court gives 'Chemical Ali' third death sentence, acquits former deputy PM

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

[JURIST] The Supreme Iraq Criminal Tribunal convicted Ali Hassan al-Majid Monday of murder and sentenced him to a third death sentence, while acquitting former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Al-Majid, better known in the Western Media as "Chemical Ali," and a cousin of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, was convicted along with two other former Iraqi officials in connection with the killings of protesters who rioted in Baghdad and Amarah following the alleged assassination of Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr - father of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - by Hussein agents. Al-Majid remains in US custody, pending disputes over arrangements for his execution and ongoing trials, including proceedings against him for allegedly orchestrating a 1998 gas attack that killed 5,000 Kurds in the village of Halabja, and a trial for his alleged involvement in the execution of thousands of political prisoners during Hussein's rule. 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 has also been sentenced to death for the killing of Kurdish Iraqis using chemical weapons during the 1988 Anfal campaign. His death sentence in the Anfal case was upheld on appeal in September 2007, but Iraq's Presidency Council did not approve the execution until late February. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government said in early March that al-Majid would not be executed until the Presidency Council approved the death sentences of al-Majid's two co-defendants in that case.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 03, 2009 (boomark / email).