Saddam Hussein's cousin known as "Chemical Ali" and 14 others faced charges of crimes against humanity for the crushing of a Shiite uprising after the 1991 Gulf War Tuesday as Iraq's third trial against former regime officials started with three of the defendants already sentenced to death in another case.
According to the AP, the Iraqi High Tribunal said the defendants are charged with engaging in widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population, and the evidence would include testimony from about 90 victims and witnesses.
Saddam's cousin and the former defense minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, who gained the nickname "Chemical Ali" after chemical attacks on Kurdish towns during the so-called Anfal campaign, entered the courtroom wearing his traditional white Arab robe and a red headdress. When Judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah asked him to introduce himself, he replied, "I am the fighter Ali Hassan al-Majid."
Al-Khalifa told the men they were charged with crimes against humanity, which court officials said carries the maximum penalty of death by hanging.
"The acts committed against the Iraqi people in 1991 by the security forces and by the defendants sitting were among one of the ugliest crimes ever committed against humanity in modern history," the prosecutor Mahdi Abdul-Amir said in opening comments.
"The helicopters were bombing the cities and houses of people. Prisoners captured were killed," the prosecutor said. "Majid used to come to detention centres, tie the hands of the detainees and then shoot them dead with his weapon. The dead were then later buried in mass graves. Many mass graves have been found since the 2003 war ended. And we will find many more if we keep searching."
Al-Majid was sentenced to death in the Anfal case but was standing trial in the Shiite uprising case pending his appeal, the court said. Two others sentenced to death for the Kurdish killings - Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, the former defense minister who led the Iraqi delegation at the cease-fire talks that ended the 1991 Gulf War, and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces - also were among the defendants.
Another high-profile defendant - Saddam's trusted personal secretary and bodyguard Abed Hameed Hmoud - referred to President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, when asked about his residence. "I used to live in a house in Jadiriyah (a neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad) and now it is occupied by Jalal Talabani," Hmoud said, repeating the sentence twice. The judge ignored his remarks.
The other 12 defendants, mostly military men, are: Abd Hamid Mahmoud Al-Nassiri, Ibrahim Abdul Sattar Muhammad Al Dahan, Waleed Hamid Tawfeeq Al-Nassiri, Iyad Ftiyah Khalifah Al-Rawi, Sabaawi Ibrahim Al-Hasan, Abdel-Ghafour Fleih Al-Ani, Ayad Taha Shihab Al-Duri, Latif Maal Hamood Al-Sabaawi, Qais Abdul Razaq Muhammad al-Adhami, Sabir Abdul Aziz Hussain Al-Duri, Saadi Tu'ma Abbas Al-Jaburi and Sufyan Maher Hasan Al-Ghreri.
