'Chemical Ali' sentenced to death in Iraq

Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid received a second death sentence Tuesday - this time for crushing a Shiite uprising in the wake of Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War.

Al-Majid, once among the most feared members of Saddam's regime, muttered "thanks be to God" as chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa declared him guilty and imposed the sentence at the end of the trial, which began in August 2007.

Al-Majid already faces the gallows after being convicted last year for his role in the killing of tens of thousands of Kurds in a crackdown in the late 1980s - in which chemical weapons were used against civilians. But legal wrangling has delayed that execution.

Another defendant, former Baath party official Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Ghafur, was also sentenced to death Tuesday. He shouted, "Down with the Persian-U.S. occupation!" and "Welcome to death for the sake of Arabism and Islam" as the sentence was read.

"Shut up, you dirty Baathist," al-Khalifa snapped, referring to Saddam's Sunni-dominated Baath party.

The trial was one of five convened so far against former leaders of Saddam's regime, which was ousted in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Two are still ongoing and others are planned.

In the first trial, Saddam was convicted of crimes in the killing of more than 140 Shiites after an assassination attempt against him in Dujail.

He was hanged in December 2006.

Following Saddam's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, Shiites in southern Iraq and Kurds in the north rose up against his regime, seizing control of 14 of the country's 18 provinces. U.S. forces created a safe haven for the Kurds in three northern provinces, preventing Saddam from attacking.

But Saddam's troops swept into the predominantly Shiite south and crushed the uprising, killing tens of thousands of people despite appeals by the Shiites for the U.S. to intervene.

In this trial, four defendants received life sentences, six were sentenced to 15 years in prison and three were acquitted.

Among those who received a 15-year sentence was former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, who signed the cease-fire with U.S.-led forces that ended the 1991 war.

He has also been sentenced to death for the Kurdish crackdown. But al-Tai's execution has been delayed because of an outcry from fellow Sunnis and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, who believed the sentence was too harsh.

Sabawi Ibrahim, one of Saddam's half-brothers and head of the feared Mukhabarat intelligence agency at the time of the uprising, also received a 15-year sentence Tuesday. During the trial, he had testified that the uprising was orchestrated by Iran.

About 100 witnesses testified altogether, telling of indiscriminate killings of Shiite civilians by Saddam's forces during the crackdown.

Following the court session, al-Khalifa, the chief judge, told reporters that he was convinced the verdicts were "fair and just."

He added that some defendants were given 15 years instead of life sentences because they showed remorse and apologized for their role in crushing the uprising.

"The existence of anti-government protests, even if a few protesters were carrying personal weapons, does not justify the use of tanks and helicopters to kill people at random," al-Khalifa said. "It took us 75 sessions to reach the verdicts in this case while Saddam's Revolutionary Court needed two minutes to try and sentence a defendant to death."

A lawmaker for the movement loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr hailed the verdicts.

"This day is the day of examination and punishment," Fawzi Akram told AP Television News. "In the (Shiite) uprising, the Iraqi people made heavy sacrifices. Crimes unprecedented in modern Iraqi history were carried out, including killings and random raiding and mass killings, with no regard for law or justice."

Al-Majid and former Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz are also on trial for allegedly orchestrating the bloody repression of Shiite riots after the 1999 assassination of al-Sadr's father.

Aziz also faces charges in another trial under way for officials accused in the 1992 execution of dozens of merchants accused of manipulating food supplies to drive up prices during hard economic times under U.N. sanctions.