BAGHDAD, June 24: An Iraqi court on Sunday condemned “Chemical Ali,” the most notorious of Saddam Hussein’s former henchmen, to death by hanging for genocide over the systematic slaughter of ethnic Kurds in 1988.

Two other defendants were ordered to face the gallows over the brutal campaign of bombings, mass deportation and gas attacks known as Anfal in which 3,000 villages were wiped out and an estimated 182,000 Kurds killed.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of the executed former dictator and widely known as Chemical Ali for ordering the chemical strikes, was sentenced to “hanging until death” by the Iraqi High Tribunal for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

“Thousands of people were killed, displaced and disappeared,” chief judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah said at a post-trial press conference. “They were civilians with no weapons and nothing to do with war.”

The Amman-based defence team vowed to appeal, describing the verdicts issued after the 10-month trial “unjust and political and have nothing to do with the law.” “It's useless to take any legal measures over the verdicts but we plan to appeal in any case,” lead lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi told AFP.

Majid, 66, the last of the six defendants to learn his fate on Sunday, declared “Thanks be to God” after the verdict.

“You gave orders to troops to kill Kurdish civilians and put them in severe conditions. You subjected them to wide and systematic attacks using chemical weapons and artillery,” Khalifah told him. “You committed genocide.”

Sultan Hashim al-Tai, a defence minister who headed “Task Force Anfal” and reported directly to Chemical Ali, was sentenced to death on the same charges but declared his innocence as he was led out of court.

“A lot of Kurds were arrested on your orders. They were later found in mass graves,” Khalifah said. “Chemical weapons were used on Kurdish civilians on your orders.”

Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, ex-armed forces deputy chief of operations, was also sentenced to death for orchestrating a large-scale attack against the Kurds and taking part in ordering chemical gas strikes against civilians.

Farhan al-Juburi, a former military intelligence commander, was sentenced to life in prison for murder, genocide and crimes against humanity by providing intelligence to Majid. He received an additional 10 years for his role in the deportation of Kurdish civilians.—AFP