Man charged over Iraq genocide

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 tonnes 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 Mr 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.