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Dutch may call Saddam Hussein as witness
in war crimes appeal
23.10.2006
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THE HAGUE, October 23,-- A Dutch appeals court
said Monday that it would study the possibility of
hearing former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as a
witness in the appeals case of a Dutch businessman,
convicted for supplying chemicals used in gas
attacks on Kurdish villages in Kurdistan region of
Iraq in the 1980s.
Lawyers for Frans van Anraat, 64, have asked that
Saddam and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid -- known
as
"Chemical Ali" -- to be called as witnesses.
On Monday the appeals court asked an investigative
judge to see if Saddam and other high-ranking
members of his regime could be heard "in the short
term".
The judges did not say when they would make their
final ruling, but said they expected the appeals
case to go to court in April next year.
Van Anraat was sentenced to 15 years in prison on
December 23, 2005 on charges of abetting war crimes
but was acquitted of complicity in genocide over the
1988 massacre of 5,000 Kurds by Saddam's regime.
The Dutch 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.
Both the defence and the prosecution appealed the
sentence.
Van Anraat, who lived as a fugitive in Iraq for 14
years until the United States-led invasion in 2003,
was
prosecuted in the Netherlands as Dutch law allows
national courts to try Dutch residents over genocide
and war
crimes committed in other countries. |
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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Saddam Hussein and six other accused are currently
on trial in Baghdad for their role in the al-Anfal
military campaign against the Kurdish population of
Iraq that are estimated to have killed over 180,000
people in 1987 and 1988.
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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