A Dutch businessman accused of selling chemicals to Iraq knowing Saddam Hussein would use them for poison gas attacks went on trial in the Netherlands on Monday on charges of complicity in war crimes and genocide. Frans van Anraat, 63, is charged with supplying thousands of tonnes of agents for poison gas used by Saddam's military in Iraq's 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 that Van Anraat continued to supply chemicals after the Halabja attack, which killed an estimated 5,000 people 17 years ago this week.A small group demonstrating outside the Hague court displayed dozens of photographs of Kurdish victims of chemical weapons. They held a red banner reading "Genocide Never Again".
"I hope he gets a life sentence," said Amir Gadir of Victims of Genocide Against Kurds in Halabja. The defence said Van Anraat did not know what Iraq intended to do with the materials he provided and had stopped shipments to Iraq after the Halabja attack. His lawyers said there was no convincing evidence linking material Van Anraat supplied to chemical weapons used by Iraq. Saddam's own trial for war crimes began in Baghdad in October. He has denied the charges. United Nations weapons inspectors have said Van Anraat was an important middle man supplying Iraq with chemical agents.