Dutch prosecutors appeal genocide acquittal for Iraq chemical supplier News
Dutch prosecutors appeal genocide acquittal for Iraq chemical supplier

[JURIST] The Public Prosecutor's office in the Netherlands filed an appeal on Friday against the acquittal of Dutch businessman Frans Van Anraat [BBC profile] on charges of complicity in genocide by Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive]. In December, the court sentenced Van Anraat to the maximum term of 15 years [JURIST report] in prison for complicity in war crimes for selling chemicals used to produce poison gas to Hussein's government. While the court acquitted Van Anraat of the genocide charges [JURIST report], the prosecutor's office wants the appeals court to decide if Van Anraat was an accomplice to genocide by providing the chemicals used to manufacture gas used by Hussein's forces in Iraq and Iran. The trial court found that the prosecution failed to prove that Van Anraat knew of Hussein's purpose in using the chemicals. The gas was used by Saddam's military in Iraq's 1980-1988 war against Iran and its own Kurdish population, specifically during the 1988 attack on Halabja [JURIST report]. Anraat is also appealing his conviction and sentence. Expatica has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

38 Santee Sioux hanged by US for rebellion

On December 26, 1862, 38 Santee Sioux men were hanged in a mass execution for their roles in a rebellion against US authorities in Minnesota which left hundreds dead and made refugees of some 40,000 white settlers. Government annuities promised under a treaty with the Sioux had failed to arrive on schedule and credit for purchases was not advanced in the meantime, threatening the tribe with starvation. The Santee Sioux Tribe's members were deported first to South Dakota and ultimately to Nebraska, where they remain today. Learn more about the 1862 Minnesota Sioux Rebellion.

Louis XVI put on trial during French Revolution

On December 26, 1792, Romain de Sèze, a defense attorney for deposed King Louis XVI, presented a defense of his client. The former King was on trial before a French Revolutionary court on thirty-three charges, including treason and other crimes against the state. He was convicted on January 15, 1793 executed by guillotine on the following January 21.