Chemical Ali: Iraq awaits Bush
2007-12-03 13:07
Baghdad - Iraq is awaiting a response from US President George W Bush over the fate of "Chemical Ali", whose execution along with two other former aides of Saddam Hussein has been delayed, an Iraqi official said.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki last week wrote to Bush asking him to order the American military in Baghdad to hand over Ali Hassan al-Majid, widely known as "Chemical Ali", for execution, government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh said late on Sunday.
"We are waiting. We have not yet received a response," said Dabbagh.
Majid, 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 for their roles in the slaughter of tens of thousands of ethnic Kurds in 1988.
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.
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.
Executions delayed
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.
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 on December 30 last year.
The executions have been further delayed 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.
Visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told reporters in Baghdad on Sunday that the men would remain in American custody until the legal problems have been resolved.
"They still are in United States custody," Negroponte said.
"Once the government of Iraq has reached a consensus on what they want to do about these detainees, we will then take action. At the moment the government of Iraq itself has not reached its own consensus about this situation."
- AFP