THE HAGUE, Jan 6
(AFP) - 18h43 - The Dutch national prosecutor has
appealed against a businessman's war crimes
conviction for supplying chemicals used in gas
attacks on Kurdish villages in Iraq in the 1980s, a
judicial official said Friday.
Chemicals trader Frans van Anraat, 63, was sentenced
to 15 years' jail on December 23 on charges of
aiding war crimes but was acquitted of complicity in
genocide over the 1988 massacre of 5,000 Kurds by
dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.
The court in The Hague ruled that while the former
Iraqi ruler committed genocide against Kurds in the
1980s, it had not been proven that Van Anraat knew
of the regime's genocidal intentions.
"The ruling on the legal question of complicity in
genocide requires, according to the prosecutor, the
judgement of a higher legal authority," the national
prosecutor said in a brief statement.
Van Anraat, who lived as a fugitive in Iraq for 14
years until the United States-led invasion in 2003,
was prosecuted after the Dutch supreme court ruled
that national courts could try Dutch residents over
genocide and war crimes committed in other
countries.
Under international law, genocide carries a special
burden of proof showing that a suspect had a
specific intent or knew of a specific intent to
commit genocide. The burden of proof is less for war
crimes.
Van Anraat's lawyer said after the verdict he would
lodge an appeal.
AFP |
Frans Van Anraat
Photo: Internet
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP |
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