BAGHDAD, Feb 29: Iraq’s presidency has endorsed the execution for genocide of Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein’s enforcer known to the world as “Chemical Ali,” for ordering gas attacks on Kurds in the 1980s, Iraqi and US officials said on Friday.

“The presidency has approved Chemical Ali’s execution,” a top Iraqi official said. “The approval was given two days ago.” Majid, Saddam’s cousin and defence minister, was sentenced to death for genocide in June 2007 along with Sultan Hashim al-Tai, another defence minister, and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, armed forces deputy chief of operations.

They were convicted of the slaughter of tens of thousands of Kurds in the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988.

The Iraqi official said no date has been set since the approval from the presidential council — President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and vice-presidents Adel Abdel Mahdi, a Shia, and Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni.

Talabani was opposed specifically to the execution of Sultan Hashim, described as a good soldier who had just been following orders.

“The prime minister has not made up his mind on the date of the execution,” the official said, but suggested it could be within 30 days of the presidency’s endorsement of the sentence.

Under Iraqi law the three men were to have been executed by Oct 4, 2007, 30 days after the sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court.

But the executions were delayed by legal wrangling after Iraq decided to postpone them until after the holy month of Ramadan, because of the outcry over Saddam’s hanging during another holiday in December 2006.

The executions were further delayed because Talabani and Hashemi refused to sign the three execution orders.

US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the embassy was “aware” of the latest approval, which concerns only Majid and not his two fellow convicts.

The three are in American military custody, and US officials have refused to hand them over until all legal wrangling has been resolved.

The Iraqi official said Baghdad had asked the US military for custody of Majid, but Nantongo said.—AFP