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Lawyers for Dutch Businessman in Iraq Genocide Trial Argue Court Lacks Jurisdiction in Case
Lawyers for a Dutch businessman accused of providing chemical weapons components to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein argued yesterday that the court in The Hague lacks jurisdiction over the case, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 8). Jan Peter van Schaik, lawyer for defendant Frans van Anraat, said that his client was being unjustly targeted as an arms supplier to Iraq. “The chemicals supplied by van Anraat were only a minute part of a large system,” he said, adding that the United States, Spain and France were also complicit in the deaths of Iraqi and Iranian Kurds by supplying, respectively, intelligence, ammunition and aircraft used in the attacks. While conceding that “awful crimes” occurred, van Schaik said his client was at most guilty of violating economic guidelines. The statute of limitations for prosecution of those crimes has expired, he said (Associated Press, Dec. 9). Van Anraat has argued that once he learned of the 1988 gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja he stopped shipping chemical components. Prosecutors have countered that the Dutchman maintained efforts to ship chemicals after attack occurred, AP reported Observers are watching van Anraat’s trial closely, as Hussein and former adviser Ali Hassan al-Majid — also known as “Chemical Ali” — are named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case and this is the first trial to deal with the issue of Kurdish genocide, the Associated Press reported. “The Iraqi prosecutors will view the Dutch proceedings as a test-run of their genocide case against Saddam Hussein," said law professor Michael Scharf of Case Western Reserve University. "They will learn from the Dutch judgment what arguments are most persuasive and what evidence is most compelling.” Iraqi judges could drop the genocide case if Dutch prosecutors cannot secure a conviction. If van Anraat is found guilty, on the other hand, it would boost the chances of a genocide ruling against the former Iraqi leader, according to AP. Hussein is now being tried for the deaths of more than 140 people in the Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982, but more charges are expected. Under his leadership, an estimated 182,000 Kurds were killed while hundreds of thousands of others were placed in detention camps, AP reported. Dutch prosecutor Fred Teeven in the van Anraat case presented evidence that Hussein and al-Majid directed the use of chemical weapons. One 1987 document demanded the use of “special artillery bombs to kill as many people as possible.” The targets were Kurds and special artillery meant using chemical weapons, according to Teeven. Hussein and al-Majid “were both closely involved in policies regarding the production and use of poison gas, the Anfal campaign [against Kurds] and the attack on Halabja,” Teeven said. He said that al-Majid said on the radio in 1988 that people in the Kurdish areas “have to be destroyed … must have their heads shot off” and, “I will attack them with chemical weapons and kill them all” (Anthony Deutsch, Associated Press, Dec. 9).
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