Tariq Aziz and 'Chemical Ali' Get 15 Years

They should be hanged, of course, but I imagine these two won't last 15 years in jail anyway.

Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and Ali Hassan al-Majid, a senior official in Saddam Hussein’s Baath party known as “Chemical Ali,” were sentenced to 15 years in prison for crimes against humanity in the killing of Baghdad merchants in the 1990s.

Aziz and al-Majid were charged over the 1992 murders of 40 Baghdad wholesalers accused of speculating on food prices when Iraq was under United Nations sanctions. The Iraqi High Tribunal handed down the sentences today, President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said on the party’s Web site. The two men faced the death penalty.

Two of Hussein’s half-brothers, Watbam Ibrahim al-Hassan and Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, were sentenced to death in the case, the PUK said. A 15-year sentence also was given to co-defendant Mizban Khadr Hadi, while Ahmed Hakki got six years. Issam Huwaish was acquitted and released, the party said.