Iraq
Ajaj Ahmed Hardan, the notorious Nugra Salman prison chief, pictured (center), with a noose shown beside him, overlaid with families of Anfal victims. Graphic: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - In a historic step toward justice, a Baghdad court on Thursday handed down the maximum penalty to notorious Ba’ath-era prison chief Ajaj Ahmed Hardan, widely known as the "Nugra Salman executioner," over atrocities he committed against Kurds during the late 1980s, Rudaw correspondent in Baghdad reported.
“Ajaj, the Nugra Salman executioner, has been sentenced to death by hanging,” said Halkawt Aziz, reporting for Rudaw from outside the Rusafa Court of Appeal, noting that survivors and relatives of the victims celebrated with traditional Kurdish ululations and expressed their gratitude to the court.
One of the witnesses present at the court hearing told Rudaw,“Today is a historic day for the families of the Anfal victims and for all Kurds, as the death sentence has been issued for the Nugra Salman killer.”
“Congratulations to all the honorable families of the Anfal victims and all the martyrs, congratulations to all the people of Kurdistan and the survivors of the Nugra Salman prison,” said another witness, adding that the sentence Ajaj received is “what we, the families of the Anfal victims, were all waiting for.”
“Today is a historic day!”
Dilam Latif, a Kurdish lawyer present at the court, told Rudaw, “Today was a very long and exhausting court session,” noting that Ajaj did not admit to his crimes.
“He kept saying, ‘I did not commit those crimes,’ but his atrocities were so egregious and well substantiated that it was clear his crimes against the people of Kurdistan required a just punishment,” Latif said.
The lawyer further affirmed that the sentence ruled against Ajaj "does not allow for exemptions based on age or other such factors. Once the appeal period for the verdict ends, the sentence will be carried out."
Another lawyer who attended today’s session, Salam Bakhtiyar, told Rudaw that today’s decision is a victory not only for the relatives of Anfal victims but for all Kurdish people “who have long been seeking justice.”
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.
The state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported on Thursday that the ruling today against Ajaj stemmed from "charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed against the Kurds during the Anfal campaign."
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.
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.
This is a developing story...
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