An Iraqi court has sentenced a former Baath Party official to death by hanging for his role in the 1984 execution of 15 members of the Kurdish Barzani tribe, a judge confirmed on Sunday.

The Iraqi High Tribunal found Shakir Taha Yahya al-Douri guilty of involvement in the killings, which it classified as genocide and a crime against humanity. Judge Aso Mohammed, former head of the Barzani Genocide case at the tribunal and an attendee of the session, stated that the crime occurred in the Saqlawiyah area of Anbar province.

Douri, described by Judge Mohammed as a captain in the Baghdad security apparatus at the time, “committed the crime alongside a group of other officers.” He was arrested on January 31 by the Iraqi National Security Service alongside four other former regime officials accused of various crimes.

The ruling document specifies that Douri participated in "mass execution operations by shooting of Kurdish tribesmen from the Barzani clan in mass graves in Fallujah/Saqlawiyah." The court also acquitted a second defendant in the same case, Sadoun Sabri.

While the death sentence has been issued, Judge Mohammed emphasized that the ruling "is still subject to appeal" until ratified by higher judicial authorities. The court also granted the families of the victims the right to seek compensation through civil courts once the verdict becomes final.

The 1984 killings are part of a broader atrocity. On July 31, 1983, approximately 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe were rounded up from their homes in the Kurdistan Region and transported to southern Iraqi deserts, where they were executed by Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime.

This act was a collective punishment targeting the Barzani tribe, whose leaders were active in Kurdish revolts. While men and boys were the primary targets, women, children, and the elderly were also victims.

These events form part of the regime's Anfal campaign against the Kurds in the 1980s, which Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court has recognized as constituting genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The campaign resulted in the deaths of over 182,000 people, the destruction of more than 4,500 villages, and included the 1988 chemical attack on Halabja.