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According to reports, Majid bin Muhammad al Majid, a Saudi jihadist who leads the al Qaeda-associated Abdullah Azzam Brigades, has died in custody. From the Daily Star: Majid was receiving treatment at the military hospital in Badaro when he passed away, the source said, adding that his health had been in sharp deterioration. Military Prosecutor Judge tasked a coroner to carry out an autopsy on Majid's body. Lebanese authorities were waiting for the Saudi Embassy in Beirut to request the repatriation of Majid's body, the National News Agency said. If Riyadh fails to make such a request, the militant would...

Tariq Aziz guilty of Iraq murders Aziz surrendered to US troops in 2003 Tariq Aziz, for many years the public face of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, has been jailed for 15 years for his role in the execution of 42 merchants. Aziz had denied any role in the summary trials of the men accused in 1992 of profiteering during economic sanctions. Two of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers were also found guilty and sentenced to death by a court in Baghdad. Another top official, Ali Hassan al-Majid - commonly known as Chemical Ali - was jailed for 15 years. Two other Iraqi...

Iraq's special criminal court Monday acquitted Tariq Aziz, the man who once served as the urbane, cigar-smoking public face of Saddam Hussein's rule, delivering the most significant not-guilty verdict in a series of prosecutions for crimes against humanity that occurred before the U.S. invasion in 2003. Aziz, who will turn 73 next month, remained in custody, facing charges in two other cases. Only hours after his acquittal, he appeared before another judge to defend himself against charges that he was involved in a massacre of Kurds in 1983. Even so, the verdict - the first in a case against him...

Saddam Hussein's cousin, whose execution has been delayed for months in a complex legal and political battle, has been hospitalized after going on a hunger strike, his lawyer said Monday. Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for the strikes he ordered against Kurds in the 1980s, and co-defendant Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Ghafour were admitted to a US medical facility on Sunday after they passed out, their defense attorney said. The US military confirmed that al-Majid was hospitalized on Sunday and said he is in stable condition. But it could not immediately confirm the information about Abdul-Ghafour or provide more details. Al-Majid...

BAGHDAD — Ali Hassan Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali," is set to be executed on Tuesday for his role in the deaths of up to 180,000 Kurds, an Iraqi judge said Monday.Munir Hadad, a senior judge of the Supreme Criminal Court, said the execution could take place anytime after 5:00 a.m. local time.

Baghdad, Sept 7, (VOI) – Three of the six defendants in the Anfal case will be executed by hanging on Saturday, a Saudi newspaper quoted the lawyer of former Iraqi deputy premier Tareq Aziz as saying. "The Iraqi Criminal Court notified Ali Hassan al-Majid, alias Chemical Ali, former defense minister Sultan Hashim and former chief of staff Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti that they will be executed tomorrow," lawyer Badie Aref Ezzat told Saudi newspaper al-Watan, published on Friday. The lawyer said he was told by the three convicts that they only wanted to meet their families before the executions. Ezzat said...

<p>The former number two official in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi air force claims the former Iraqi dictator moved weapons of mass destruction from Iraq to Syria in the months preceding the current Iraq war.</p>

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's feared cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," has appeared before Iraq's special tribunal as it steps up the process of questioning former regime loyalists over war crimes. Majid was one of eight aides to the former president to be questioned by investigators this week, officials said on Sunday, raising to at least 12 the number interrogated in the past 10 days. Majid last appeared before a judge in December. The new Iraqi government, facing fresh elections by the year's end, is keen to put Saddam and others on trial soon. But officials with...

KUWAIT CITY -- Kuwaiti prosecutors have drawn up a list of charges against ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and hundreds of his officials for alleged war crimes committed during Iraq's occupation of the Gulf nation, the prosecutor general said Wednesday. The list will be delivered to the Iraqi court that will try Saddam and other former regime members and the new charges will be added to the existing allegations, prosecutor general Hamed al-Othman said, according to the state-owned Kuwait News Agency. Saddam, who was captured in December 2003, already faces charges in Iraq that include killing rival politicians during his...

BASRA, Iraq, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- More than 50 bullet holes in the wall of the empty swimming pool at "Chemical Ali's" house here indicate just how violent the former Saddam Hussein operative could be.Border police who have taken over the house don't go out to the pool much, said Col. Ali Hussein Jabar, commander of about 30 men working there. Bad things happened there, Jabar said. The relatively modest two-story house is built on an artificial hill surrounded by concrete. It looks out over flat, desolate desert sands inhabited only by sheep herders and oil pipeline guards for as...

A GRAVE holding 30 bodies has been found in the garden of an opulent villa where sadistic parties are said to have been hosted by the Iraqi general known as Chemical Ali, writes Adam Nathan.Police who found the grave say General Ali Hassan alMajid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein who got his nickname from the gas attacks he mounted on the Kurds of northern Iraq, used to entertain house guests with a “party game” that involved shooting prisoners tied to metal posts in the garden. Major Jasin Hamed Taleb, 43, a police intelligence officer, said local farmers had witnessed several...

On March 16, 1988, 5,000 residents of Halabja, a Kurdish city in eastern Iraq, were killed and 10,000 injured when Saddam Hussein's army attacked with chemical weapons -- perhaps the largest-scale use of such weapons against a civilian population in modern times. That morning, Iraqi Air Force planes bombed the city with a lethal chemical cocktail of mustard gas and sarin, tabun and VX nerve agents. Two days ago, the man accused of overseeing the attack, Gen. Ali Hasan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, appeared before a judicial tribunal in Baghdad. He is likely to go on trial next...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Ali Hassan al-Majid, one of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s closest aides and better known as "Chemical Ali," will be the first of Saddam's top deputies to be tried, Iraq (news - web sites)'s Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan said on Wednesday.   Shalaan, speaking to reporters, said the trial could start next week and would definitely take place by mid-January. "In the next few days we will have the trial of Ali Hassan al-Majid, one of the close followers of Saddam Hussein," Shalaan said, speaking through an interpreter. "He will be the first to be tried."...

Official: 'Chemical Ali' to Be Tried First: 'Chemical Ali' to Be First Saddam Aide to Face Trial Next Week, Government Official Says Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq Dec 15, 2004 — The ex-Iraqi general known as "Chemical Ali," who is accused of using chemical weapons attacks to kill thousands of Kurds, will be the first detained former Saddam Hussein regime figure to stand trial next week, a government official said Wednesday. Ali Hasan al-Majid is accused of ordering the 1988 Halabja chemical weapons attacks against Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and suppressing a 1991 Shiite uprising in southern Iraq. He...

BAGHDAD, June 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein, who brutalised Iraqis for decades, said good morning and sought to ask some questions when the United States handed him over to Iraqi justice on Wednesday, a witness said. Saddam, who was captured hiding near his hometown of Tikrit in December, looked in good health as he appeared before an Iraqi judge in the first legal step towards a trial for the cruelties he inflicted during his 35 years of power. "Saddam said good morning and asked if he could ask some questions," Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal...

Britain is today expected to hand over its highest profile Iraq war detainee, Ali Hassan al-Majid, or "Chemical Ali", as Iraq's new government prepares to bring charges against former dictator Saddam Hussein. A special Iraqi tribunal has issued arrest warrants for Mr Hussein's top lieutenants, including Mr Majid, who is accused of ordering chemical weapons attacks on Iraqi Kurds, and Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister. British officials said they had little choice other than to deliver physical and legal custody of Mr Majid to Iraqi authorities, in spite of the risk he could face execution. The interim Iraq...

Saddam Cousin 'Chemical Ali' Caught in Iraq TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - Ali Hassan al-Majid, a feared cousin of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for his use of poison gas in attacks, has been captured by U.S. forces in Iraq (news - web sites), the U.S. military said on Thursday. "We do have him and he was captured alive," U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Ryan Fitzgerald told Reuters. Fitzgerald said no details were available on the arrest, where it took place, or whether Majid was injured. Majid was No. 5 on a U.S. list of the 55...

<p>The United States has failed to substantiate assertions from Iraqis who say they saw Saddam Hussein alive after Baghdad fell, prompting the Bush administration to order excavation at the site of an allied bombing aimed at killing the ousted dictator.</p>

Saddam's nephew finds sanctuary in Syria By Con Coughlin in Baghdad (Filed: 18/05/2003) A leading member of Saddam Hussein's family has been discovered living in Damascus under the protection of the Syrian government after fleeing Iraq last week, The Telegraph can reveal. Fatiq al-Majid, one of Saddam's nephews, entered Syria last Monday after leaving Iraq at the al-Rabie'a checkpoint, which is under the control of American troops. Majid was given a Syrian visa and made his way to Damascus, where he is now living in exile. Majid confirmed his presence in Damascus when contacted by telephone by The Telegraph last...

The Hussein ally reportedly died in a raid in Basra. Hospital workers say he was in Baghdad days later.By Juan O. Tamayo, Knight Ridder News ServiceBAGHDAD - Hospital workers say they saw the infamous Saddam Hussein henchman known as "Chemical Ali" alive in Baghdad just before the city fell, contradicting British army reports that he had been killed in an air raid on a house in the southern city of Basra days earlier. The eyewitness reports that Ali Hassan al-Majid, who ordered poison-gas attacks on Kurdish villages in 1988 that killed 5,000 civilians, was at the Baghdad Nursing Hospital on...