Majid was sentenced to death on January 17 for ordering the gassing of
Kurds in the northeastern town of Halabja which killed an estimated
5,000 people and was one of the worst atrocities of Saddam’s
iron-fisted regime.
Three-quarters of the victims at Halabja were women and children,
in what is thought to be the deadliest ever gas attack carried out
against civilians.
The conviction for the gas attack that came as the Iran-Iraq war
drew to a close was the fourth time that Majid had received a death
sentence.
Handing down the ruling, Judge Abud Mustapha al-Hamani branded
Majid’s offences as “deliberate murder, a crime against humanity” when
the verdict was delivered amid muffled applause in the courtroom.
