IRAQ overnight delayed the execution for genocide of "Chemical Ali" as a separate trial heard horrific testimony of the alleged effects of his brutal 1991 crackdown on a Shiite uprising.Ali Hassan al-Majid, whose death sentence was upheld by the supreme court one month ago for presiding over the mass killings of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s, should have been executed under Iraqi law by the end of Thursday. Asked if Majid would be executed within that timeframe, a senior government official said: "Absolutely not. The Iraqi government has not made up its mind, the prime minister has not given us the green light yet."
In the separate Shiite uprising trial, Majid and 14 co-defendants are accused of having overseen a bloodbath in which up to 100,000 people were killed by Saddam Hussein's security forces. The slaughter came in March 1991 after Iraqi occupation troops were driven out of Kuwait by a US-led alliance.