UPI reports that Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali, was sentenced by the Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday 17 January 2010 to be hanged for a 1988 gas attack against Kurds in Halabja.
In the same decision, former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie and former Director of Military Intelligence, Sabir Azizi al-Douri were each sentenced to 15 years in prison and Farhan Mutlaq al-Jubouri, a former senior military intelligence official, was sentenced to 10 years.
The Iraqi High Tribunal (المحكمة الجنائية العراقية العليا) (IHT) is the body established to try Iraqi nationals or residents accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or other serious crimes committed between 1968 and 2003.
The BBC reports on 17 January 2010 that Ali Hassan al-Majid was captured in August 2003, and previously sentenced to death by the IHT:
– in June 2007 for his role in the 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds;
– in December 2008 for his role in crushing a Shia revolt after the 1991 Gulf War;
– in March 2009 for the 1999 killings of Shia Muslims in the Sadr City district of Baghdad.
As the Daily Telegraph reports on 17 January 2010, considerable controversy surrounds the IHT and there is an impasse in implementing judgments in that two members of the Presidency Council unwilling to authorise death sentences in particular against Sultan Hashim al-Taie.