Iraqi PM at odds with presidency over execution order

By Wisam Mohammed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's moves to execute Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as "Chemical Ali", have faltered because of a new dispute between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the presidency council.

The council, made up of President Jalal Talabani and his two vice-presidents, approved the long-delayed hanging of Ali Hassan al-Majeed last Friday but failed to endorse the execution of two former army commanders sentenced to death with him.

Maliki was not accepting this decision and wanted all three to be executed at the same time, Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for Iraq's Shi'ite-dominated government, told Reuters.

Majeed, former Defence Minister Sultan Hashem and a former army general, Hussein Rashid Muhammed, were sentenced last June after being convicted for their role in the 1988 Anfal campaign in which tens of thousands of Kurds were killed.

Legal wrangling has held up their executions. Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, opposed the hanging of Muhammed and Hashem, arguing that they were military men who had simply been following orders.

All three remain in U.S. military custody.

"The Iraqi government refuses to take over Ali Hassan al-Majeed without Sultan Hashem and Hussein Rashid," Dabbagh said.

"The prime minister refuses to split the death sentences issues by the Iraqi High Tribunal. He wants them to be carried out together. He does not believe the presidency council has the right to commute the sentences or change them," he said.

U.S. military spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner told reporters in Baghdad earlier on Wednesday that the government had not yet made a request for Majeed to be handed over.

"Once that does happen we will fulfill our responsibility," he said.

Iraqi officials had said they expected "Chemical Ali" to be executed within days. His death sentence last June was widely cheered by Iraqis who remembered his ruthless use of force to crush opponents to Saddam's rule.

Sunni Arab leaders, however, have campaigned to commute the death sentence imposed on Hashem, who has a reputation as a brave and courageous soldier.

Saddam and three members of his government have already been executed, although in the cases of the Iraqi leader and his half-brother there was controversy too.

Saddam's execution in December 2006 sparked anger among Sunni Arabs, who were outraged by a video showing the ousted leader being hanged to sectarian taunts from official observers.

His half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was executed two weeks later in a botched hanging in which he was decapitated.

(Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Richard Balmforth)