Saddam Hussein’s cousin, ‘Chemical Ali,’ sentenced to death in Iraq

A special Iraqi court has sentenced Saddam Hussein’s cousin “Chemical Ali” al-Majid to death for his role in the 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising.

Former Baath party official Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Ghafur also received a death sentence Tuesday at the end of the trial that began in August 2007. He shouted “down with the Persian-U.S. occupation” as the sentence was read.

Four defendants received life sentences, six face 15-year sentences and three were acquitted.

Chemical Ali is already under death sentence for the crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq in the late ’80s.

Former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai also faced the gallows in the Kurdish crackdown but was among those receiving a 15-year sentence Tuesday.