Baath-era official known as ‘executioner of Nugra Salman’ appears in court

BAGHDAD — The first court session in the trial of Ajaj Ahmad Hardan al-Tikriti, a former official of the Baath-era Nugra Salman prison who participated in the Anfal genocide campaign against the Kurds, was held Thursday at the Baghdad Rusafa Court.

Al-Tikriti, known as the “executioner of Nugra Salman,” faces accusations related to the killing of dozens of Kurdish children, women, youths and elderly detainees at the prison, one of the most brutal facilities used during Saddam Hussein’s rule. Around 300 legal complaints have been filed against him by relatives of victims from Chamchamal, Garmian and Halabja, accusing him of involvement in torture, beatings, abuse and killings.

Iraq’s National Security Service arrested al-Tikriti in Salah al-Din governorate in August 2025 after more than six months of investigation. He had remained in hiding for more than 37 years, with his family previously circulating reports claiming he had died in an attempt to avoid prosecution.

The first legal complaint against him was filed by Fazila Hussein, a survivor of Nugra Salman who was detained along with thousands of other Kurds in the late 1980s and released in 1990 under a general amnesty. In a previous interview, she said justice for victims is a legitimate right and stressed that survivors must not be excluded from any judicial process related to the case. She said she still remembers the faces of those responsible for torture and starvation inside the prison.

Anfal, conducted between Feb. 22 and Sept. 6, 1988, was a systematic genocide orchestrated by the Baath regime targeting the Kurdish population across eight phases. An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 Kurds were killed, according to a 1993 Human Rights Watch report, though Kurdish sources put the figure as high as 182,000.

Nugra Salman, constructed in 1930 near the village of Salman in Muthanna governorate, was used extensively during the 1980s to detain thousands of Kurds and is regarded as a symbol of the Baath regime’s repression. The Baath Party ruled Iraq from 1968 until the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.