Ali Hassan al-Majid, a former Iraqi official better known as 'Chemical Ali,' has been sentenced to death for ordering a poison gas attack on Kurds, local media reported on Sunday.
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.
Previously, "Chemical Ali' has also received death sentences for atrocities during Hussein's regime.
Local media said Majid, who was captured in August 2003, several months after U.S. troops invaded Iraq, would be executed by hanging.
Saddam was hanged December 30, 2006, after being convicted for the 1982 killings of 148 Shiites in Dujail, north of Baghdad.
BAGHDAD, January 17 (RIA Novosti)
