Saddam’s half-brother dies of cancer

An imprisoned half-brother of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein died Monday of cancer, Iraq’s Justice Ministry said.

Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a former regime official and adviser to Saddam, died at a Baghdad hospital after recently being transferred there from prison, the ministry said.

Al-Hassan, a presidential adviser to Saddam, was No. 36 on a U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis after American-led forces toppled the regime in 2003.

Al-Hassan — the six of diamonds in a card deck that had the names and faces of the 55 most wanted regime officials — was captured in February 2005, and the United States handed him over to Iraqi authorities in July 2011.

An Iraqi court sentenced him to death after he was convicted of murder and crimes against Iraqis, the Justice Ministry said.

Al-Hassan was Iraq’s head of intelligence and security during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and continued to run the security service until 1996, when he took the presidential adviser post, the Justice Ministry said.