Along with Majid, another two top officials of the Saddam Hussein era - former defense minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, and former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Army, Hussein Rashid Mohammed - had their appeals against the death sentence rejected. According to the Iraqi constitution, the sentences must now be carried out within 30 days.
The three men had originally been found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging June 24 for their involvement in the Anfal Operation, an Iraqi government campaign against separatist Kurds in northern Iraq that resulted in the deaths of around 180,000 people in the 1980s.
The cousin of Saddam Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq, Majid ordered the use of chemical weapons against residents of the Halabja village in Kurdistan in 1988, resulting in the deaths of 5,000 people, including women and children. Following the massacre, Kurds in northern Iraq began to refer to Majid as 'Chemical Ali'. The nickname soon gained worldwide notoriety.
In further developments, the appeal court upheld the life sentences imposed on Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former deputy director of operations for the armed forces, and Sabir al-Douri, former director of military intelligence.
Saddam Hussein was hanged December 30, 2006, after being convicted for the 1982 killings of 148 Shiites in Dujail, north of Baghdad.
