Chemical Ali gets death sentence

Saddam Hussein's notorious henchman "Chemical Ali" was sentenced to death on Sunday for ordering the gassing of Kurds in the Iraqi town of Halabja, a brutal attack that killed an estimated 5,000 people.

Ali Hassan Al Majid is to die by hanging, having been found guilty of the atrocity in the northeast of the country as the Iran-Iraq war drew to a close in 1988, an iconic moment that symbolised the barbarity of Saddam's Hussain's regime.

The ruling, shown on the state-run Al-Iraqiya television channel, is the fourth time that Majid, better known by his macabre nickname, has received a death sentence.

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.

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