Dutchman accused of selling Iraq chemicals

A DUTCH businessman accused of complicity in war crimes and genocide for selling chemicals to Iraq knew Saddam Hussein would use them for poison gas attacks, prosecutors said yesterday.

Frans van Anraat, 62, is charged with supplying thousands of tons of agents for poison gas that Saddam’s military used in the 1980-1988 war against Iran and against its own Kurdish population, including an attack on the town of Halabja in 1988.

Prosecutor Fred Teeven told a pre-trial hearing at the high-security court in Rotterdam that Van Anraat continued to supply chemicals after the Halabja attack, which killed an estimated 5,000 people 17 years ago this week.

“Van Anraat was conscious of ... the fact that his materials were going to be used for poison gas attacks,” he said.

“The damage and grief caused will not be rapidly, if ever, forgotten,” Mr Teevan added.

The defence said Van Anraat did not know what Iraq intended to do with the materials he provided and stopped shipments to Iraq after the Halabja attack. There was no convincing evidence to link material he supplied to chemical weapons used by Iraq.

Saddam and his feared cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as “Chemical Ali,” face trial for war crimes, including the Halabja attack, at a special tribunal in Iraq.

The first Dutchman to be tried on genocide-related charges, Van Anraat, who sat silently in court, faces up to life in prison if convicted. The next hearing has been scheduled for June. His trial is expected to begin later this year.