Judgment Day for 'Chemical Ali' over Kurdish Genocide

[Hissyspit]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Judgement day for 'Chemical Ali' over Kurdish genocide
by Jay Deshmukh

BAGHDAD (AFP) - An Iraqi court is to deliver its verdict on Sunday against six former aides of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, including the notorious "Chemical Ali," over the mass killing of 182,000 Kurds in 1988.

The Iraqi High Tribunal -- set up to try former regime officials -- will pass judgement on the accused for the brutal military campaign known as Anfal in northern Iraq in which nearly 3,000 villages were razed to the ground.

The sentencing hearing opened with chief Judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah calling on the six defendants one by one.

The most prominent defendant is Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam who is widely known as "Chemical Ali" for allegedly ordering chemical gas strikes against Kurdish villages.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070624/wl_mideast_afp/iraqtrialgenocide_070624075928

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. 'Chemical Ali' sentenced to hang

A cousin of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by an Iraqi court for the mass murder of Kurds in 1988.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for using poison gas in the Anfal campaign, was convicted of genocide.

About 180,000 Kurd civilians died in the campaign, prosecutors say.

Two fellow defendants were also sentenced to death, two others received prison sentences and a fifth had charges dropped for lack of proof.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6233926.stm

[Capn Sunshine]

2. No one called him "Chemical Ali" except the Bush admin

and they sold his country the stuff and educated him in its use.

[Sal316]

3. The Kurds begged for help re: Anfal

...and the Bush Admin ignored them. Mostly because we were neck deep in the muck with Saddam AND because of pressure from the Turks.

[Psephos]

4. R.I.P. (Rot In Perdition)

I remember the pictures of the dead little Kurdish kids in their checkered robes, their limbs inflated like helium balloons.