Criminal court to extend appeal period for intifada convicts

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Supreme Criminal Court on Wednesday agreed to a request made by the lawyer of convicts in the 1991 al-Intifada al-Shaabaniya case to extend the period of appeal. “The court has agreed to the request in view of its legality and compliance with the Supreme Criminal Court Law,” the court’s president, Aref Shahin told IraqiNews.com. The court on December 2 passed its verdicts on the 1991 al-Intifada al-Shaabaniya, or the mid-Shaaban uprising, repression case, sentencing Ali Hassan al-Majid, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s cousin, the former commander of the southern zone and a member of the dissolved Revolutionary Command Council, and Ali Abdelghani Abdelghafour Fleih, a member of the dissolved Baath Party regional command – Basra branch, to death by hanging. The court passed life terms against Ibrahim Abdelsattar Mohammed, commander of the 2nd Division in Basra, Iyad Feteih al-Rawi, the commander of the Republican Guard corps, Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, the assistant chief of staff of the army, and Saber Abdelaziz Hussein al-Dori, the chief of the military intelligence. It passed 15-year imprisonment terms against Sabaawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, the director of the former intelligence agency, Abdelhameed Mahmoud (Abad Hammoud), Walid Hameed Tawfeeq al-Nasser, a former Republican Guard officer, Saadi Tiema Abbas al-Juburi, Sultan Hashim Ahmed, the former minister of defense, and Qays al-Aadhami. The court, however, acquitted Sofian Maher Hassan, the commander of the former Republican Guard’s 2nd Armor Division corps, Lateef Mahal Hammoud al-Sabaawi, a staff brigadier general in the former army and member of the security committee in Basra province, and Iyad Taha Shihab, the secretary general of the former intelligence agency. SS (S) 1