Iraq
Picture of Ajaj Ahmed Hardan, the brutal executioner at the notorious Nugra Salman prison in southern Iraq, released by Iraqi security forces in August 2025. File photo: INSS
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iraqi court is expected to issue its final verdict on Thursday in the case of Ajaj Ahmed Hardan, a notorious Ba’ath-era prison warden widely known as the “executioner of Nugra Salman,” nearly four decades after atrocities he confessed to committing during the Anfal genocidal campaign against the Kurds in the late 1980s, with lawyers anticipating he could face the maximum penalty under Iraq’s penal code.
According to a lawyer representing the survivors, the Rusafa Court of Appeal in Baghdad is set to announce its ruling following several hearings in which victims, relatives, and witnesses testified against Ajaj.
Ayad Kakeyi further told Rudaw on Wednesday that the testimony of the accused had significantly strengthened the prosecution’s case as “he clearly confessed to his crimes. This has made it easier for the court to reach a final decision,” Kakeyi said, adding that “the evidence against the accused is also very strong.”
Iraqi officials last week reported that the former prison warden admitted during interrogation to multiple crimes, including sexual assault, starving prisoners, and direct involvement in killings inside Nugra Salman, a remote desert prison in southern Iraq used during the Anfal campaign against the Kurds.
Kakeyi said Ajaj confessed to “killing innocent people, torturing them, and carrying out assaults against them,” adding that he believes the former warden could face “a death sentence under the Iraqi Penal Code.”
Arrested in the summer of 2025 after spending decades in hiding under false identities, Ajaj appeared before the court for the first time last week.
Survivors and relatives of victims have filed more than 300 complaints against the former prison chief, while 221 invitations were issued to victims’ families from the Kurdistan Region and Iraq’s eastern Diyala province - home to a significant Kurdish population - to attend the proceedings.
Representatives from the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs, along with human rights advocates and relatives of victims, are expected to attend Thursday’s session, which many survivors view as a landmark moment in the pursuit of justice.
Carried out between February and September 1988 under the regime of toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the Anfal campaign against the Kurds involved chemical attacks, mass executions, and the destruction of more than 4,000 villages. Estimates suggest between 50,000 and 182,000 Kurds were killed, with many buried in unmarked mass graves across Iraq’s southern deserts.
RELATED: The nightmare of Ajaj: The Baath regime’s infamous executioner
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