KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) — An Iraqi court on Saturday condemned to death a senior leader of the Mahdi Army Shiite militia over a killing spree last year that left 52 people dead in the central shrine city of Karbala.
The Karbala appeals court sentenced Ali Sharia, the local chief of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia wing, to death by hanging, a statement read out by the court said.
"The evidence against the defendant was abundant," said presiding judge Abed Alnour al-Fatlawi. "He also confessed to the crimes."
Karbala, home to some of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, was the scene of a bloodbath during a major pilgrimage last August when suspected Mahdi Army militiamen clashed with police in street battles that left 52 people dead.
Police in Karbala have routinely accused Sadr's militia of carrying out a four-year killing spree in Karbala which left hundreds dead after the 2003 US-led invasion.
It was not the first time that an Iraqi court has tried Mahdi army members for crimes against Iraqis, but Sharia was the most senior militiamen to be given the death penalty.
The verdict also came only days after Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, renewed his promise on Thursday to disarm the 60,000-strong Mahdi Army, saying it should now focus on cultural and religious issues.
The firebrand cleric ordered a six-month halt to attacks on rival armed groups and US forces in August last year after the Karbala battles.
He extended the freeze for a further six months in February.
Sadr's decision to stop fighting in 2007 came at the same time that many Sunni rebel groups in western Iraq decided to join forces with the US military to fight Al-Qaeda and amid a "surge" in American troop numbers.
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