By NNN-KUNA
Baghdad : Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashimi said here Saturday the Iraqi Presidency had unanimously approved the execution of Ali Hassan Al-Majid, better known as Chemical Ali.
But, it has decided to delay the hanging of other defendants Sultan Hashim and Hussein Rashid, al-Hahimi Office said in a release.
Chemical Ali was condemned to death on genocide charges for killing 100,000 people during the 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds in northern Iraq.
Chemical Ali was initially sentenced to death in June last year but legal wrangling held up the case, according to the release.
He was convicted along with two other top officials – Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, a senior military chief, and the former defence minister, Sultan Hashim al-Tai.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Baghdad said the embassy had not yet received any official request from the Iraqi government to hand over Chemical Ali for hanging.
Majid acquired his nickname Chemical Ali after poison gas was used to kill many of the tens of thousands of Kurds who were killed during the Anfal campaign.
The former Iraqi regime claimed Anfal was a necessary counter-insurgency operation during Iraq’s bloody eight-year war with neighbouring Iran.
During the US-led invasion of 2003, Chemical Ali appeared as the fifth most-wanted member of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and was the King of Spades in the notorious deck of cards that the US-led forces issued.