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Dutch war crimes convict wants Saddam
Hussein as appeals witness
10.10.2006
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THE HAGUE, October 9,-- A Dutch businessman,
convicted for having supplied chemicals used in gas
attacks on Kurdish villages in Iraq in the 1980s,
requested on Monday that former Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein be called as a witness at his appeal.
During a procedural appeal court hearing lawyers for
Frans van Anraat, 63, presented a list of witnesses
they would like to call.
They included Hussein and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid,
the Dutch news agency ANP said.
Van Anraat 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 court is to decide on October 23 if the
defence's wishes are to be acceded to. They had
submitted a similar request during the original
trial, but it was rejected at the time.
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. |
Frans van Anraat, a Dutch businessman, convicted for
having supplied chemicals used in gas attacks on
Kurdish villages in Iraq in the 1980s
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP |
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The ousted Iraqi leader himself returned to court on
Monday for the latest hearing in his genocide trial,
which continued in Baghdad following a two-week
adjournment.
AFP
About Frans van Anraat
Frans Cornelis Adrianus van Anraat (born August 9,
1942 in Den Helder) is a Dutch businessman who sold
raw materials for the production of chemical weapons
to Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein.
During the 1970's Van Anraat worked at engineering
companies in Italy, Switzerland and Singapore that
were building chemical plants in Iraq. Having
learned about the trade in chemicals, he founded his
own company, "FCA Contractor", based in Bissone,
Switzerland. From 1984 he supplied thousands of tons
of chemicals to Iraq.
Among these chemicals were the essential raw
materials for producing mustard gas and nerve gas.
Both gases were used during the Iran-Iraq war
between 1980-1988 as well as during an attack the
military carried out on Iraqi Kurds in 1988, in
which some 5,000 people were killed. This attack was
part of the Al-Anfal campaign of the Iraqi regime
against Kurds in the north of the country.
After his arrest and release in Italy in 1989, Van
Anraat fled to Iraq, where he lived for the next 14
years. When Saddam's regime fell in 2003, Van Anraat
returned to the Netherlands. He was arrested on
December 6, 2004 for complicity to war crimes and
genocide. On December 23, he was sentenced to
fifteen years in prison for complicity to war
crimes, but the court argued the charges of
complicity to genocide could not be substantiated.
The public prosecutor appealed the verdict. This
case is also notable, because it established that
the chemical bombings in North Iraq constituted
genocide according to the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Soon after his arrest, Dutch newspapers reported
that Van Anraat had been an informer of the Dutch
secret service AIVD.
Van Anraat is the only Dutchman ever to appear on
the FBI's most wanted list.
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