Prosecutors in the Netherlands have said they are confident they can prove their case against a Dutch businessman who is accused of selling chemicals used in the manufacture of poison gas to the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein.
Frans van Anraat, 62, is being tried for war crimes in Rotterdam; he is the first Dutch citizen to face such charges. He was formally charged this morning during a preliminary hearing.
Prosecutors say he supplied thousands of tonnes of agents for poison gas used by the former dictator in the 1980-1988 war with Iran and against his own Kurdish civilians.
The gas is said to have been used in the 1988 attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, killing more than 5,000 people.
Mr van Anratt was arrested by Dutch officials at his Amsterdam home in December.
UN weapons inspection agencies have described him as one of the most important middlemen in Iraq's acquisition of raw materials for chemical weapons.
