The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Baghdad

Iraq's presidency on Friday approved the execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid, a top Saddam Hussein henchman known to the world as "Chemical Ali" for ordering gas attacks on Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s. "The presidency has approved Chemical Ali's execution," a top Iraqi official told AFP on conditition of anonymity. He said no date had been decided for the execution by the presidency council, which comprises President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Shiite Adel Abdel Mahdi and Sunni Tareq al-Hashemi. Majid was sentenced to death for genocide in June last year along with two other Saddam cohorts Sultan Hashim al-Tai, Saddam's defence minister, and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, his armed forces deputy chief of operations. The three were convicted after being found responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Kurds in the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988. Under Iraqi law they were supposed to have been executed by October 4, 30 days after their sentences were upheld by the Iraq Supreme Court.