Dutchman facing genocide charges (Supplied Iraq)

ROTTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch court opens hearings today against a man accused of helping former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein
commit war crimes and genocide by providing him with materials for chemical weapons.

Frans van Anraat, 62, is charged with supplying thousands of tonnes of raw materials for chemical weapons used in the 1980-1988 war
against Iran and against Iraqi Kurds, including a 1988 attack on the town of Halabja, in which an estimated 5,000 people were killed.

Prosecutors say the United Nations has described Van Anraat, who is also charged with complicity in war crimes and genocide, as
"one of the most important middlemen in Iraq's acquisition of chemical material".

He was also detained in Milan in January 1989 following a U.S. request but was released after two months. He then went to Iraq where it is thought he stayed until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, when he returned to the Netherlands through Syria.

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