Iraq's 'Chemical Ali' gets new death sentence

Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" was convicted Sunday of crimes against humanity and received a death sentence for his involvement in a poison gas attack on Halabja.

Families of some victims in court cheered when the guilty verdict against Ali Hassan al-Majid was handed down in a trial over one of the worst poisonous gas attacks against civilians.

He has already received previous death sentences for atrocities committed during Saddam's rule, particularly in the government's suppression of the Kurds in the late 1980s.

Other officials in Saddam's regime received jail terms for their roles in the 1988 attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja near the Iranian border.

Former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie faces 15 years in prison, as does Iraq's former director of military intelligence, Sabir Azizi al-Douri.

Farhan Mutlaq al-Jubouri, the former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office, was sentenced to 10 years.

The jail terms were handed down following guilty verdicts on charges that included crimes against humanity.

Nazik Tawfiq, 45, a Kurdish woman who said she lost six of her relatives in the attack came to court alone to hear the sentence. She fell to her knees and began to pray upon hearing the verdict against al-Majid.

"I am so happy today," Tawfiq said. "Now the souls of our victims will rest in peace."