Lawyers for former Iraqi defence minister Ali Hassan al-Majid have a few vexing problems in fighting their client's genocide and crimes against humanity case: His nicknames, reputation and the evidence.
The nicknames alone - 'Chemical Ali' and 'the Butcher of Kurdistan' - must have had them shrugging their shoulders with resignation; then, all Iraqis thought of Majid as the 'hatchet man' of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, with whom he and five other officials from the regime went on trial last Monday. And what about all those books packed with carefully collated facts, like the respected Human Rights Watch report, 'Genocide In Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds?'
'I will kill them all with chemical weapons,' the group quotes Majid as saying of Iraq's northern ethnic Kurds in a 1988 audio tape of a meeting of leading officials. 'Who is going to say anything? The international community? F*** them! The international community, and those who listen to them. I will not attack them with chemicals just one day, but I will continue to attack them with chemicals for 15 days.'
At another meeting on what to do about the Kurds' alleged alliance with Iran, with whom Iraq fought a crippling border war from 1980 to 1988, he is said to have told listeners: 'These kind of dogs - we will crush their heads.'
At least 100,000 Kurds - some claim 150,000 or more - were killed by Iraqi forces during the late 1980s.
Faced with such odds, the defence team has come up with its only viable weapon: Frailty. Majid, 65, entered the courtroom in Baghdad's top-security 'green zone' clutching a cane and walking slowly, wearing a red and white keffiyeh and traditional Iraqi robe. Introducing himself to the judge as a first major general in the air force, he assumed his seat and sat quietly, rising only once in a silent salute as Hussein walked in. Ignoring the judge's barked order to sit down, the pair exchanged smiles before Majid did as he had been told and then sat mostly motionless for the rest of the day as prosecutors spoke of the genocide of the Kurds.