Hawk. You back home now.?
For Len.
Businessman jailed for sale of chemicals to Saddam
WENDEL BROERE
IN THE HAGUE
news.scotsman.com
A DUTCH businessman was given a 15-year prison sentence yesterday after he was found guilty of complicity in war crimes for selling chemicals to Saddam Hussein's Iraq which were used to carry out gas attacks.
The court in the Hague said Frans van Anraat, 63, supplied the raw materials knowing they would be used to make poison gas during 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.
Roel van Rossum, the presiding judge told a packed court: "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.
"Even the maximum sentence is not enough to cover the seriousness of the acts."
Defence lawyers said they would appeal against the sentence, which was the maximum that could be imposed.
"We believe that the court interpreted several points too conveniently," Jan Pieter van Schaik, a defence lawyer said.
He said it had not been proven that van Anraat's materials had actually been used in poison gas attacks.
Van Anraat, who was 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 16 March, 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.
In a magazine interview in 2003, van Anraat admitted to supplying the chemicals but denied knowing they were destined for Iraq and that they would be used to make poison gas.
Prosecutors had said van Anraat delivered more than 1,000 tonnes of thiodiglycol - an industrial chemical which can be used to make mustard gas but also has civilian uses - to Iraq and more than 800 tonnes ended up on the battlefield.
The judge said van Anraat had shown no sign of remorse.
"The fact that he wanted to resume exports of thiodiglycol almost immediately after he had seen footage of the gas attacks on Halabja and told a colleague around July 1988 to tell no-one he was in Baghdad shows he did not regret or repent his acts." |
