Dutchman jailed for 15 years over Iraq poison gas

A court jailed a Dutch businessman for 15 years yesterday after finding him guilty of complicity in war crimes for selling chemicals to Iraq used to carry out gas attacks, but acquitted him of genocide charges.

The court said Frans van Anraat, 63, supplied the raw materials knowing they would be used to make poison gas by Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the 1980-1988 war with Iran.

Poison gas was also used against Iraq's own Kurdish population, including an attack on the town of Halabja in 1988.

"His deliveries facilitated the attacks and constitute a very serious war crime. He cannot counter with the argument that this would have happened even without his contribution," presiding judge Roel van Rossum told a packed court. "Even the maximum sentence is not enough to cover the seriousness of the acts," he said.

Defence lawyers said they would appeal against the sentence, which was the maximum that could be imposed for the charge.

"We believe that the court interpreted several points too conveniently," defence lawyer Jan Pieter van Schaik said, adding it had for example not been proven that Mr Van Anraat's materials had actually been used in poison gas attacks.

Mr Van Anraat, not present in court, was acquitted of genocide charges as it could not be proven he knew exactly how the chemicals would be used.

But the judge did say the attacks had been carried out with the intent to destroy the Kurdish population in Iraq and had been part of a "policy of systematic terror" against them.

The Halabja attack on March 16, 1988 killed an estimated 5,000 people.

Dozens of relatives of victims and their supporters danced in a circle to the sounds of flutes and beating drums outside the court after the sentence was handed down.

More than 50, some in traditional dress, had followed the proceedings through interpreters into English, Farsi and Arabic and some clapped their hands when the sentence was read.

Banners on fences outside the court read: "The Hiroshima of Kurdistan is Halabja" and "Halabja genocide never again".