Iraqi tribunal sentences 3 to death in Anfal trial (Roundup)

Jun 24, 2007, 14:19 GMT

Baghdad - Iraq's special tribunal Sunday sentenced three men - including the infamous 'Chemical Ali' - to death on charges of genocide in the Saddam Hussein regime's late-1980s Anfal campaign against Kurds in northern Iraq.

Two other defendants were served life prison terms, while a six accused was acquitted for lack of evidence in the high-profile case which reopened a one of the more bloody chapters in the history of the Saddam and Baath party's rule over Iraq.

The focal point of the Anfal (Spoils) trial which had begun in August 2006 was Ali Hassan al-Majid - known internationally as 'Chemical Ali' - whom the court held responsible for the poison gas attacks against Kurdish civilians.

Besides al-Majid, two other defendants were sentenced to death: former defence minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad and former assistant to the Iraqi army's chief of staff, general Hussein Rashid Mohamed al- Takriti.

The court served life prison terms on the lesser charge of crimes against humanity to Sabir Abdel-Aziz al-Douri, former chief of military intelligence during the Anfal Campaign, and Farhan Motlek al-Jabouri, also a top military intelligence figure.

One defendant, Taher Tawfiq al-A'ni, who was the governor of Mosul at the time of the campaign, was acquitted for insufficient evidence.

The death verdicts are still subject to appeal. If the appeal is rejected, then the executions would take place within 30 days.

Initially, the chief accused was Saddam Hussein himself. But he was hanged last December 30 following the death sentence passed against him in a previous trial over the massacre of Shiites in Dujail in 1982.

Al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam's, for the most part listened impassively as chief judge Mohamed Khalifa al-A'ribi read out the sentence. But at one point he interrupted with slogans 'Long live the Baath party' and 'Long live the glorious Iraqi army.'

Between 50,000 and 180,000 people were killed, by various estimates, in the Anfal campaign waged by Saddam against Kurds in northern Iraq in the waning days of the Iran-Iraq war.

In the campaign, the Iraqi army carried out a scorched-earth policy, including poison gas attacks and mass executions, against hundreds of villages in the Kurdish region in the 1987-1988 period.

Sunday's court session was the 61st during the Anfal trial. A total of 432 defendants are standing trial in the Anfal case.

During the trial al-Majid insisted on his innocence despite a mass of eyewitness, tape recordings and documented evidence against him. He said he was only carrying out Saddam's orders or else he himself would have been killed.