Dutch “Chemical Ali” on Trial for Genocide

Dubbed “Holland’s Chemical Ali” by the Dutch media, Frans van Anraat, 62, a businessman who is alleged to have helped Saddam Hussein to gas the Kurds of Halabja in 1988, appeared for a pre-trial hearing in Rotterdam Friday, facing charges of complicity in genocide and international war crimes. Fred Teeven, the prosecutor, told the hearing that “Van Anraat was conscious of…the fact that his materials were going to be used for poison gas attacks.” Dutch “Chemical Ali” on Trial for Genocide