"Chemical Ali" was sentenced to death today for ordering the greatest crime committed during the reign of Saddam Hussein.The cousin of the former dictator earned his nickname in 1988 when he ordered an airborne poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, killing more than 5,000 people, including many women and children.
Ali Hassan al-Majid is to be hanged for what is believed to be the single biggest gassing of civilians in history. It is his fourth death sentence for crimes committed as Saddam's defence minister, interior minister, intelligence chief and governor of occupied Kuwait.
"I am so happy today," said Nazik Tawfiq, 45, a Kurdish woman who lost six of her relatives in the attack. She came to court alone to hear the sentence, and fell to her knees and began to pray upon hearing the verdict. "Now the souls of our victims will rest in peace."
Saddam himself was never tried for the Halabja massacre, something many Kurds regret. He was executed three years ago by the ruling Shia government for massacring Shias in the south of Iraq.
"This judgment is a victory for all Iraqis, humanity and the Kurds because Halabja is the biggest crime of modern times," said Majid Hamad Amin, minister of the martyrs and displaced in the Kurdish regional government. "Halabja is not only a Kurdish case but it is an issue for all Iraqis and the rest of the world."
On March 16, 1988, Iraqi jets swooped over the small town and for five hours sprayed it with a deadly cocktail of mustard gas and the nerve agents Tabun, Sarin and VX. International outrage meant that al-Majid did not dare leave Iraq for the following 15 years. Only as war with the US looked increasingly likely in early 2003 did he visit Syria and Lebanon in a bid to whip up regional support for Iraq.
Soon though he became the King of Spades in the pack of cards of most wanted Iraqis issued by the US military during the invasion and was arrested in August of that year. Initially it was thought he had been killed by coalition bombing of his villa in Basra, but US officials were later forced to admit that he was still alive.