Hussein’s defense minister denies receiving orders to use chemical weapons

Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, Saddam Hussein’s former defense minister, said he did not receive orders to use chemical weapons on Iraqi Kurds during the Anfal campaign in the 1980s, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

Al-Tai nonetheless added that he would have carried out the orders had he received them. The defense’s closing statement stressed that al-Tai was only defending Iraq against Iranian attacks in the northern part of the country and that he was promised “protection and good treatment” by Americans before his arrest. The chief prosecutor presented a letter from al-Tai’s superiors asking the defendant to use “special ammunition against enemy poison” as proof of al-Tai’s guilt.

Al-Tai along with other former officials under Hussein, including Hussein’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, aka “Chemical Ali”, are currently being tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. They could be sentenced to death by hanging if found guilty at the end of the trial.

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