India-Forums.TV

[nahia]

Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" was convicted today of crimes against humanity, receiving a death sentence for his involvement in a poison gas attack on Halabja - one of several hanging over him.

Families of victims in court cheered when the judge handed down the guilty verdict against Ali Hassan al-Majid in a trial for one of the worst poisonous gas attacks against civilians.

He has already received three previous death sentences for atrocities committed during Saddam's rule, particularly in the government's campaigns against the Shiites and Kurds in the 1980s and 1990s.

Other officials in Saddam's regime received jail terms for their roles in the 1988 attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja near the Iranian border.

Former Defence Minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie faces 15 years in prison, as does Iraq's former director of military intelligence, Sabir Azizi al-Douri.

Farhan Mutlaq al-Jubouri, a former top military intelligence official, was sentenced to 10 years.

The jail terms were handed down following guilty verdicts on charges that included crimes against humanity.

Nazik Tawfiq, 45, a Kurdish woman who said she lost six of her relatives in the attack came to court alone to hear the sentence. She fell to her knees and began to pray upon hearing the verdict against al-Majid.