The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Baghdad

An Iraqi court sentenced Iraq's notorious "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid to death over his role in Saddam Hussein's brutal crushing of a 1991 Shiite uprising, according to an AFP correspondent at the trial, his seco

The hearing, set for 11 am (0800 GMT), comes after harrowing testimony from witnesses of Saddam's crushing of the rebellion who described family members being thrown from helicopters and mass executions.

Majid was sentenced to death in June 2007 for genocide after ordering the deaths of tens of thousands of Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign, when Iraqi forces strafed villages with poison gas, the source of his grim nickname.