Anfal Campaign Appeals Chamber Opinion Now Available On Grotian Moment

On September 4, 2007, the Iraqi High Tribunal Appellate Chamber issued a twenty-eight page decision in the “Anfal Campaign Case,” rejecting the various grounds for appeal and upholding the convictions of “Chemical Ali” (Ali Hassan al-Majid) and five other military leaders of Saddam Hussein’s regime of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes related to their roles in a three-year crackdown of northern Iraqi Kurds known as the Anfal campaign. The Iraqi High Tribunal and Regime Crimes Liaison Office have provided the English Translation of the Anfal Campaign Appellate Chamber Opinion to Case Western Reserve University School of Law to post on the Grotian Moment Website for world wide access. This is the only place on the internet that the English Translation of the Opinion is available. The Appellate Chamber Opinion, which includes a detailed analysis of the defendant’s culpability for genocide, is of special significance because, aside from the Nuremberg Tribunal and Rwanda Tribunal, this is the only other war crimes tribunal to convict persons of the offense of Genocide, the worst crime known to humankind.

The English translation of the 900-page Anfal Campaign Trial Chamber Judgment is also available on the Grotian Moment Website. The Anfal campaign, which began in 1986 and lasted until 1989, featured the use of conventional and chemical warfare against the Kurdish population. Over 100,000 people were killed and 4,000 villages were wiped off the map. Hassan al-Majid, one of Saddam Hussein’s most feared henchmen who directed the Anfal Campaign, and two other co-defendants were sentenced to death by the Tribunal, while two others received life imprisonment. Although the Appeals Chamber has upheld the death sentences, to date they have not been carried out. Saddam Hussein himself was initially a defendant in the Anfal trial, but was executed half way through the proceedings in December of 2006 for crimes against humanity committed against the residents of Dujail.

Posted @ 1:38 AM | Experts Debate the Issues: The Anfal Trial