A court in The Hague today began hearing the appeal by Dutch businessman Frans van Anraat, sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2005 for selling chemicals to Iraq. The chemicals were used to make chemical weapons which killed thousands of people.

The public prosecution department is also appealing against a verdict which found van Anraat not guilty of genocide against the Kurds in northern Iraq.
The department said it was looking at calling former Iraqi army chief Ali Hassan al-Majid, responsible for the chemical attack on Kurds, as a witness.