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Iraqi MPs condemn delays in executing
Saddam aides
27.11.2007
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November 27, 2007
BAGHDAD,-- Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish MPs on
Monday condemned the delay in carrying out the
executions of "Chemical Ali" and two other convicted
former officials of the Saddam Hussein regime.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali for using
poison gas against the Kurds in
Anfal campaign, Sultan Hashim al-Tai, Saddam's
defence minister, and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, his
armed forces deputy chief of operations, were
sentenced to death on June 24.
Anfal was an anti-Kurdish campaign led by the former
regime between 1986 and 1989 and involved a series
of military campaigns against the Kurdish Peshmerga
fighters as well as the mostly Kurdish civilian
population of southern Kurdistan 'Northern Iraq'.
Independent sources estimate there were more than
100,000 deaths in the campaign, in which chemical
weapons were used, while Kurds claim about 182,000
Kurds were killed.
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Ali Hassan al-Majid, first cousin of executed
dictator Saddam Hussein and also known as 'Chemical
Ali', 'Butcher of Kurdistan' sentenced to death over Kurdish genocide, AP |
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Kurdish and Shiite deputies called for the
executions to be carried out without further delay.
"Nobody has the right to interfere and stop the
implementation of the executions," Mahmud Othman, a
Kurdish MP, said in parliament. Shiite MP Shaheed
Jabar said the delay was a "violation of the
constitution".
The US military which is holding the three convicts
says they will be handed over for execution only
after a legal row between Iraqi officials is
resolved. But Jabar accused the US military of
violating the "principles of justice".
The delay has been due to differences within the
government over the legal and procedural
requirements for carrying out the sentences handed
down by the Iraqi High Tribunal, the court set up to
try former regime officials.
www.ekurd.net
Under Iraqi law, the three men were supposed to have
been executed by October 4, 30 days after their
sentences were upheld by the Iraqi Supreme Court.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not want the
executions to go ahead during the Muslim holy month
of Ramadan, which ended on October 15, because of
the outcry that followed Saddam's hanging during
another Muslim holiday.
And because two members of the presidential council
-- President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni -- have refused
to sign the execution orders, the sentences have yet
to be carried out.
www.ekurd.net
AFP
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