Arrest and Trial
After his arrest and release in Italy in 1989, Van Anraat fled to Iraq, where he lived for the next 14 years. When Saddam's regime fell in 2003, Van Anraat returned to the Netherlands. He was arrested on December 6, 2004 for complicity in war crimes and genocide. On December 23, 2005, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for complicity in war crimes, but the court decided the charges of complicity in genocide could not be substantiated. Both the public prosecutor as well as Van Anraat appealed the verdict. In May 2007, the appeal court sentenced Van Anraat to seventeen years in prison, this time for complicity in multiple war crimes which explains the two extra years, but not for complicity in genocide.
This case was also notable because it established the ruling that the chemical bombings in North Iraq constituted genocide according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Van Anraat is the only Dutchman ever to appear on the FBI's most wanted list.
Read more about this topic: Frans Van Anraat
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