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Baghdad: The last legal hurdle to the long-delayed execution of 'Chemical Ali', a cousin of Saddam Hussain and once one of the most feared men in Iraq, has been removed, Iraqi officials said on Friday.
Iraq's presidency council, made up of President Jalal Talabani and the two vice-presidents, has given the go-ahead for Ali Hassan Al Majeed to be hanged, they said, although no date has been set for his execution.
"They approved it two days ago," a source at the presidency council told Reuters, without explaining why the decision had been kept secret.
'Ruthless'
Al Majeed's reputation for ruthless use of force to crush opponents won him widespread notoriety during Saddam's rule and led many Iraqis to fear him more than the Iraqi leader himself.
Asked when Al Majeed would be hanged, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said: "It will be a matter of days."
The two officials said it would be up to Al Maliki's government to set a date for the execution.
The US military, which has custody of Al Majeed and other former members of Saddam's government, said it had not received a request to hand him over to the Iraqi authorities, which would signal that his execution was imminent.
The legal wrangle held up the execution of Al Majeed, Saddam's former defence minister, Sultan Hashem, and a former army commander, Hussain Rashid Mohammad, who were due to have gone to the gallows within days of an Iraqi appeals court upholding their death sentences last September.
Al Majeed's death sentence was widely cheered by Iraqis, but Talabani and Vice-President Tarek Al Hashemi, a Sunni, opposed the execution of his co-accused, arguing military men should not suffer such a punishment for following orders from their political masters.
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