On Tuesday 30 June 2009, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands rendered its judgement in the case of Frans van Anraat, a Dutch businessman, upholding the 2005 conviction for complicity to war crimes. The Dutch highest court declared that “The suspect knew [...] the TDG he was delivering was being used for mustard gas”, and “knew that the poison gas would be used in the (Iran-Iraq) war”. However, the Court rejected the claims for damages brought by 16 victims as being too complicated, especially where Iraqi or Iranian law would be applicable. Additionally, the Court reduced Van Anraat’s sentence by six months due to the length of the proceedings.

On 23 December 2005, the District Court of The Hague found Van Anraat guilty of complicity in violations of the laws and customs of war, but acquitted him of complicity to genocide. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. On 9 May 2007, the Court of Appeals of The Hague confirmed the finding of guilt and increased the sentence by two years.

Attacks on the civilian population

Judge Leo van Dorst of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands insisted that during the 1980s, Frans van Anraat was the only supplier of a gas called TDG. As such, Van Anraat’s involvement in supplying chemicals to Iraq was an essential contribution to the chemical weapons programme of Saddam Hussein’s regime. With the chemicals supplied by Van Anraat, the regime was capable of carrying out a large number of attacks with mustard gas on the civilian population, both in Iran and Iraq.

The District Court found that the chemical attacks in Kurdistan during the1980s, notably on the city of Halabja in March 1988, were committed with the intent to destroy the Kurdish people in Iraq and that this action therefore amounted to genocide by the regime. The Supreme Court did not rule on the question of whether or not Saddam Hussein’s regime committed genocide, although the Court of Appeals had found that there were strong indications that the leaders of the Iraqi regime had genocidal intent.

Research File: Frans van Anraat