BAGHDAD, Iraq – The former general known as “Chemical Ali,” notorious for allegedly gassing thousands of Kurds, looked haggard and leaned on a cane in a court Saturday as Iraq’s U.S.-backed government speeded the pace of legal proceedings against Saddam Hussein’s henchmen before January’s critical elections.
The appearances of Ali Hassan al-Majid and Hussein’s last defense minister, Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmad, before a tribunal of judges were the first in a series of interrogatory hearings that were made public in preparation for eventual full trials of Iraq’s one-time leaders. The session was closed to the press.
A defense lawyer who attended the hearings said Ahmad spent four hours at the tribunal, with the questions focused on charges regarding attacks on Kurds and the Anfal campaign, a depopulation scheme that killed and expelled hundreds of thousands of Kurds from northern Iraq during the 1980s. Ahmad is said to have led the Iraqi army’s 1st Corps into the Anfal campaign.
“I have been a military officer for 40 years and have never been punished. It’s unfortunate that I have to sit like this before the court with the Americans sitting behind me,” Ahmad told the judge, according to the lawyer, who declined to be identified.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday that detained Hussein regime figures would start appearing before courts in the coming week – pressing ahead with the trials ahead of Jan. 30 national elections.
Insurgents renewed attacks across northern Iraq, targeting election offices, executing two civilians and wounding four American security contractors in a roadside bomb attack. An Iraqi militant group also claimed responsibility in a video posted on an Islamic Internet site for the Dec. 8 killing of two U.S. contractors.
In Mosul, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb near a U.S. military patrol, injuring no soldiers but hitting a school bus. One eighth-grade student was killed and six were wounded, the military said in a statement.
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