SANAA, Yemen, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- A Yemeni security source said Saturday a Yemeni businessman was released from prison after paying blood money for killing an Iraqi related to Saddam Hussein.
The official said on condition of anonymity that Ahsan al-Hatha paid one million dollars to relatives of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for killing Hamad Hassan al-Majeed, a nephew of Ali Hassan al-Majeed, Saddam's cousin known as Chemical Ali.
Al-Hatha was accused of shooting al-Majeed in a Chinese restaurant in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, last February during an argument about Saddam Hussein.
The official told United Press International the Yemeni businessman was released according to tribal laws, in which the families of the killer and victim settled out of court with al-Hatha paying one million dollars as compensation.
The victim's uncle, Chemical Ali, was arrested in Iraq in August 2003, or five months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The Kurds gave him the nickname for his alleged role in using chemical weapons in an offensive that killed thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1987.
Dozens of families of former Iraqi officials, particularly from al-Majeed clan, live in Sanaa.
