Prosecutors Seek 15-Year Sentence for Van Anraat

Dutch prosecutors want businessman Frans van Anraat to serve 15 years in prison if he is convicted of supplying Iraq with components of chemical weapons used to kill thousands of Kurds, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 7).

“This defendant has not, and never will, consider the effects of his deeds,” said prosecutor Fred Teeven. “Structural use of chemicals weapons by the Iraqi regime was made possible by the accused, the only supplier.”

Teeven offered documents showing shipments by van Anraat’s company of a precursor agent for mustard gas from Maryland to Iraq in 1988. 

Also presented were U.N. photographs from 1991 of drums of chemicals from van Anraat’s company at an Iraqi chemical plant in Samarra. Teeven said the defendant lived “under the protection of the Iraqi regime for 14 years” and left only after former leader Saddam Hussein was removed from power in 2003.

The defense is expected to make its closing argument tomorrow, with a verdict expected later this month, according to AP (Anthony Deutsch, Associated Press, Dec. 7).

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