'Chemical Ali should die now'
2007-11-11 16:39
Baghdad - Iraq's prime minister said on Sunday there were no legal grounds for blocking the execution of "Chemical Ali" al-Majid and two others sentenced to hang for crimes against Iraqi Kurds, despite demands by leading politicians to spare one of the three from the gallows.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also criticised the United States for refusing to hand over the three for execution, which should have taken place more than a month ago.
A US spokesperson said the Americans would continue to hold the three until the Iraqis sort out their differences over procedures for executions.
Al-Majid, former defence minister Sultan Hashim al-Tai and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces, were convicted in June of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang for the crackdown that killed up to 180 000 Kurdish civilians and fighters two decades ago.
An appeals court upheld the verdict in September and under Iraqi law the sentences should have been carried out within a month.
But President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Sunni vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi and parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, also a Sunni, raised objection to al-Taie's execution, saying he should be spared in a gesture of national reconciliation.
Al-Taie is a Sunni Arab. Many Sunni Arabs see his death sentence as further evidence of a Shi'ite and Kurdish witch hunt against their minority's once-dominant position and of undue influence by the Shi'ite-dominated government over the judiciary.
- AP