"The suspect, a chemicals dealer, is suspected of supplying the ingredients for chemical weapons to the regime of Saddam Hussein," Wim de Bruin of the national prosecutor's office said.
The 62-year-old man, identified as Frans van Anraat by the media, is the first Dutch national to be investigated on suspicion of complicity in genocide, De Bruin said. He also faces charges of war crimes.
When he was arrested he was apparently planning to flee the country with a packed suitcase at the ready, De Bruin said.
The chemicals dealer is notably suspected of supplying the materials to produce mustard gas used in the 1988 attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, near Iraq's border with Iran.
In July officials of the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try deposed leader Saddam Hussein, said he faces seven charges of crimes against humanity. One of the charges specifically relates to the gassing of Kurds in Halabja during Iraq's bloody war against Iran.
According to the Dutch authorities Van Anraat supplied "thousands of tons of base materials for chemical weapons between 1984 and 1988".
The chemicals he sold to Iraq could be used to make mustard gas and nerve gases. The raw materials originally came from the United States and Japan, according to the prosecution.
"From different sources it can be deduced that the suspect was aware of the destination and the final purpose for the base materials supplied by him. One of the most infamous attacks with chemical weapons is the destruction of the Kurdish town of Halabja on March 16, 1988. During this attack an estimated 5,000 people were killed," the prosecutor's office said.
The authorities said that investigation showed that the businessman dealt directly with the Iraqi authorities but used financial scams to try to hide the involvement of Iraq and his own involvement in the deals by using a Panamanian business with a Swiss office.
According to the Dutch authorities US customs had already started an investigation into Van Anraat's activities several years ago. The United States concluded he was involved in four shipments of thiodyglycol, a chief ingredient of mustard gas, from the US to Europe.
He was arrested in 1989 in Italy at the request of the US but fled to Iraq where he remained until US-led forces invaded the country in 2003, the Dutch authorities said. For unknown reasons the US withdrew their extradition request for him in 2000.
When the US-led coalition entered Iraq, Van Anraat escaped to the Netherlands where he was arrested on Monday.
He is currently in custody and will be brought before a judge later this week to decide whether he will be remanded in custody, the prosecution said.
Dutch authorities have worked with the US, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Jordan to track down Van Anraat.
Dutch authorities had known since 2003 that Van Anraat was back in the Netherlands but initially they said that he could not be prosecuted because the US had withdrawn its request and because at the time when the raw materials for the mustard gas were supplied it was not breaking Dutch law or the chemical weapons convention.
Van Anraat is now being prosecuted because he violated the international laws and customs of war and the genocide convention.
© 2004 Agence France-Presse
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