Criminal court resumes Halabja case

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Supreme Criminal Court resumed on Tuesday sessions under Chief Justice Mohamed Ureibi al-Khaliefa in the trial on the attack on Halabja city using chemical weapons by listening to the witnesses and with the attendance of all suspects, including Ali Hassan al-Majid and Sultan Hashem and Saber al-Douri. On March 16, 1988, Halabja came under brutal chemical attacks at the hands of the former Iraqi regime, leaving more than 5,000 people killed and more than 10,000 others injured according to Kurdish estimates. Sulaimaniya, one of the three Kurdish provinces, lies 364 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Iraq’s Supreme Criminal Court handed down death sentences in June 2007 against Ali Hassan al-Majid, notoriously known as Chemical Ali, Saddam Hussien’s cousin and one of his top aides, former Minister of Defense Sultan Hashim Ahmed, and former assistant chief of staff Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti after they were found guilty of committing genocide. The court also sentenced Saber Abdul-Aziz al-Dori, the former chief of military intelligence during the regime’s Halabja campaign, known as Anfal, and Farhan Motalk al-Juburi, the former chief of intelligence in the northern zone, to life imprisonment. However, the court acquitted Taher Tawfiq al-Aani, the former governor of Mosul during the Anfal campaign. The court condemned the defendants for committing crimes of war and crimes against humanity and killing and rendering homeless thousands of Iraq’s ethnic Kurds in 1988 and 1989. Halabja district is 83 km east of Sulaimaniya city, which lies 364 km north of Baghdad. SH (S)/SR 1