Iraqi execution apparently imminent
It is the first execution of Iraq’s former leaders that has been approved by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, and two Iraqi vice presidents, apparently fulfilling all the legal requirements in the present Iraqi penal code in a way that the executions of (1) Saddam Hussein and (2) his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (whose head was yanked off by the rope during the force of his fall from the gallows), (3) former judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar, as well as (4) former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan (who was originally only sentenced to life imprisonment, but whose punishment was upgraded during an automatic appeal), did not. (Talabani somehow made himself absent for at least Saddam’s and Taha Yassin Ramadan’s executions.)
Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for his role in the air attacks with chemical weapons that killed thousands of Iraqi Kurds in Halabja and elsewhere, and a cousin of Saddam Hussein, will now die within the 30-day limit specified by Iraqi law — but, it will probably happen much sooner, and maybe even as early as tomorrow.
UPDATE: Reuters is now reporting that the Presidency Council (the president and the two vice-presidents) actually approved the sentence two days ago, and that there was no explanation of why this decision has been kept secret. This Reuters report is here.
The verdicts were upheld on appeal last September. It was earlier reported that they had been approved by the Iraqi president (and the two vice presidents) today (Friday).
Another new element today is that the death sentences passed and upheld on appeal on two other former senior officials — including one who had reportedly been promised amnesty by senior U.S. military officials, apparently for his covert assistance — has not been approved, or at least not yet.
It is not yet clear whether the death sentences for these two men — Hussein Rashid Mohammed, described as a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces, and Sultan Hashim al-Taie, a former defense minister — will be commuted. Iraqi officials are reportedly saying that both men were really only career military officers who were simply carrying out orders
If their sentences are commuted, the imminent execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid would be the last of the capital punishments carried out on the former leaders of Iraq’s Baathist regime.
Filed under: Iraq, USA, United Nations
i dont get it
why kill them
in everyones land we would only debrief them
& not just to get from them what they know that must be of great value
& i mean we would really stick it to them that way
but also to make them run naked for the rest of their lives
or until they could properly redistinguish themselves
tho here of course we would be lenient