Shafaq News-Baghdad
An Iraqi courtsentenced Ajaj Ahmed Hardan al-Tikriti, known as the “butcher of Nuqratal-Salman prison,” to death on Thursday over crimes linked to the 1988 Anfalcampaign against Kurds.
Al-Tikriti, aformer Iraqi security officer under Saddam Hussein’s regime, was accused ofoverseeing torture, starvation, and abuses against Kurdish detainees held atNuqrat al-Salman prison in southern Iraq during the Anfal operations.
According tocase records, al-Tikriti was arrested by Iraqi security forces on July 31,2025, after decades out of public view. He had reportedly fled to Syria afterthe fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, before later returning to Iraq.
Courtproceedings began on May 7, 2026, before Baghdad’s Rusafa Appeals Court,attended by dozens of relatives of Anfal victims, former detainees, andwitnesses. Authorities summoned about 220 people from Al-Sulaymaniyah, Erbil,Duhok, Diyala, and Saladin provinces to testify in the case.
Ininvestigation records cited by Iraqi and Kurdish media, al-Tikriti allegedlyadmitted that detainees died daily from hunger, extreme heat, and torture overa period of nearly six weeks, and that bodies were buried outside the prison inprimitive graves.
He alsoreportedly told investigators that prisoners were given only one loaf of breadfor three meals and contaminated water to drink.
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