'Chemical Ali' gets third death sentence

BAGHDAD, March 2 (UPI) -- An Iraqi tribunal Monday sentenced Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," to death for his role in the violent suppression of a 1999 Shiite uprising.

The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced Majid and three others to hang for their role in the deaths of Iraqi civilians following a Shiite uprising in response to the 1999 assassination of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, the father of anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr, and two of his sons in Najaf.

This is the third death sentence for Majid, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports. He received the death penalty for his role in the suppression of a Shiite rebellion in the wake of the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The court also issued the death penalty for his role in the Anfal campaign against Kurdish rebels and civilians in the 1980s. Chemical weapons were used against the Kurds in the Anfal campaign, earning Majid his nickname.

The court acquitted former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz in the 1999 case, however. Aziz also faces war crimes charges for allegedly ordering the execution of several businessmen who had protested rising food prices in the wake of U.N. sanctions on the former regime.

Iraqi authorities in February 2008 said Majid would hang "in a matter of days." He allegedly suffered a heart attack in April due to a hunger strike and was returned to a U.S. detention facility.