The appeals arguments in the trial of Frans van Anraat will be held at The Hague from April 4-25. On December 23, 2005 a Dutch court sentenced the 65 year-old businessman to 15 years in prison for complicity in war crimes committed by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, his cousin Ali Hassan al- Majid and his son in law Hussein Kamal al-Majid. Both parties are challenging the lower court's judgment and legal reasoning. The prosecution hopes to obtain a conviction for complicity to genocide. The court of first instance acquitted Van Anraat of this charge, finding he lacked the requisite knowledge of the Iraqi leaders' genocidal intent. However, it concluded that genocide had in fact been committed. The prosecution argues the court should have applied Dutch criminal law, which, unlike international criminal law, does not require the prosecution to prove that the accomplice also possessed the "specific intent" to commit genocide. Under Dutch law, it is enough to show the accomplice knew there was a probability bordering on certainty that genocide would be committed.�

International law prevails

The Dutch parliament has made clear that Dutch law should be applied to international crimes. Furthermore, the court applied Dutch law in charging Van Anraat with war crimes. But, when it came to complicity in genocide, the judges, quoting a ministerial memorandum, decided that international law must prevail when "international rules on responsibility deviate in essence from national criminal law".�

From April 1984 to August 1988, van Anraat was an important supplier of chemicals that had both civil and military purposes, including Thiodiglycol (TDG), which was used to produce mustard gas, a chemical weapon tested during the 1988 Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds. The prosecution would like to make a renewed attempt to prove that Van Anraat continued to supply Iraq with TDG and other chemicals after Anfal. �

Van Anraat, for his part, is aiming for a full acquittal. He says he was simply a merchant, transporting goods from suppliers in the United States and Japan to buyers in Iraq. He emphasizes that United States executives received much lighter sentences, having only been charged with export violations. He adds that Dutch companies like Melchemie and KBS, which supplied large quantities of these same, dual-purpose chemicals, have not been prosecuted at all.�

To prove that chemical exports to Iraq were a regular occurrence at the time, the defence has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a list of all its export authorizations to Iraq from 1980 to 1990. The appeals court supported this request, as the information could be relevant to measure the culpability of the Dutch weapons trader. But although the Ministry offered some insight into its export policy at the time, it flatly refused to hand over the names of all the companies who traded with Iraq. Letter shows Van Anraat requesting Iraqi citizenship

Dutch TV program Netwerk showed on 30 March a letter said to be from van Anraat to Saddam Hussein: "Your Excellency, [...] with warm feelings of excitement I address myself to you [...] with a request to become Iraqi national. [...] I have learned to love your country an its people and considered Iraq as my second homeland. And I take my pride in all what it took me to do and stand up for it. Not only do I feel here at home, but above all can personalize with the past, present and future objectives Iraq stands for." The letter is dated May 7, 1990, and Netwerk TV says that Saddam replied positively on June 4 the same year. The same TV channel quoted another letter, by chief of military intelligence, praising van Anraat for his important role in the chemical weapons industry.