Confusion over Chemical Ali's fate

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A legal debate and reconciliation politics have delayed the scheduled executions in Iraq of three Saddam Hussein-era officials and the hiatus is causing an uproar among Iraqi officials.

Ali Hassan al-Majeed, also known as Chemical Ali; Sultan Hashem Ahmed, and Hussein Rashid, all from the Sunni-dominated Hussein government, were found guilty of war crimes during the bloody Anfal offensive during the late 1980s in Iraq's Kurdish region.

They were to be executed by hanging within 30 days after an Iraqi appeals court upheld their sentences in early September.

However, the three remain in United States custody amid protests over the case and will remain so until there is a meeting of the minds among Iraqis on how to proceed.

The case has served to underscore vagueness over how Iraqi law addresses executions and the political importance U.S. officials place on winning the hearts and minds of the country's restive Sunni Arab population.

"There continue to be differences in viewpoint within the government of Iraq regarding the necessary Iraqi legal and procedural requirements for carrying out death sentences issued by the Iraqi High Tribunal," Mirembe Nantongo, spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, told CNN on Monday.

"Coalition forces will continue to retain physical custody of the defendants until this issue is resolved. There is still discussion within the government of Iraq over the legal requirements in this case. The U.S. is not refusing to relinquish custody. We are waiting for the government of Iraq to come to consensus as to what their law requires before preparing a physical transfer."

Iraqi law requires that the three members of country's presidency council sign the execution warrants but doesn't address what happens if the leaders don't ratify the executions and apparently allows no room for sentence revisions.

In this case, Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish president and Tariq al-Hashimi, the Sunni vice-president, are unwilling to sign an execution order. The third member of the council is the Shiite vice-president, Adel Abdul Mahdi.

One Western official close to the case told CNN that Iraqi courts have not addressed whether the absence of a signature constitutes a de facto pardon or a stay of execution.

But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, addressing the issue on Sunday before reporters, said the Iraqi High Tribunal made a final ruling in the case and an appeals court upheld the ruling. He said the sentence should have been carried out even if the order is not signed.

Talabani has selected a panel of experts to study the matter.

A major concern among Iraqi and U.S. officials and citizens is the political impact of the verdict -- which accuses the three of spearheading the Anfal campaign, where as many as 180,000 people were said to have been killed.

The general sentiment is that Chemical Ali is guilty of planning the campaign. However, many Sunni Arabs and U.S. officials believe Hashem and Rashid should not be executed.

The Western official says Rashid was not "criminally culpable for anything that happened during Anfal" and that Hashem had been and is "extremely popular" among military officials, with a "constituency" in Iraq that "cuts across Sunni-Shia lines."

U.S. officials believe the executions of the two could arouse anger among Sunnis and would amount to a backwards step in terms of bringing Sunni Arabs into the political fold.

After the overthrow of the Sunni-dominated Saddam Hussein government and the emergence of the Shiite-dominated power structure, Sunni Arabs became supportive of the insurgency. The United States since has made inclusion of alienated Sunnis in the Iraqi power structure a political priority.

"At the end of the day, what I think that we shall see is a compromise: the life of Ali Hassan al-Majeed will be traded for the savings of the lives" of Hashem and Rashid, the official says. E-mail to a friend