Trial of companies complicit in Ba'athist regime crimes in final stages, says Halabja org
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Luqman Abdulqadir, the head of the Halabja Chemical Attack Victims Association, on Thursday told Kurdistan24 that the trial of European companies that sold chemical weapons to the Iraqi Ba'ath regime is in its final stages.
Abdulqadir also called on the families of the martyrs to submit pertinent documents, while stressing that all documentation must be submitted by March 12.
“The trial has stagnated as a result of several factors. Previously, our case was heard in the Halabja court. The judge was changed from hearing to hearing," he noted, and added, "A total of 4,817 complaints have been filed, some of whom have been exposed to chemical weapons, and others of whom are relatives of over 2,000 victims of the chemical attack.”
The Association’s head continued, “We have signed a representation agreement with a group of international lawyers to collect evidence and documents, and we will prepare and facilitate the statements of the relatives of martyrs and wounded to become legal evidence to prosecute these companies.”
As Kurds were preparing to celebrate their ancient holiday of Newroz in the spring of 1988, the town of Halabja was attacked with mustard and sarin gas by the Iraqi Air Force. The massacre, widely regarded as one the deadliest chemical attacks in history, killed as many as 5,000 civilians.
Yet many Halabja victims that survived still deal with ongoing, chronic symptoms associated with contact from the deadly gasses. Among the symptoms are muscle weakness, paralysis, pain, pins and needles sensations, and, notably, skin cancer.
In Mar. 2018, an American human rights law firm from Chicago filed a lawsuit on behalf of 4,811 Kurds that identified and accused several European companies of supplying the regime of Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons, while explicitly knowing that the purpose of the sales were to exterminate the Kurds.
Read More: New lawsuit filed in Halabja against companies supplied Saddam with chemical weapons
According to The Tennessean, the Chicago law firm MM-Law has filed lawsuits against the following companies for being complicit in the Halabja massacre: German companies TUI A.G., Water Engineering Trading GmbH, Karl Kolb; French companies Groupe Protec and De Dietrich Process Systems; Dutch companies Melspring International; and the Luxembourg-based General Mediterranean Holding.
The lawsuits also seek damages from senior Iraqi officials that served under the former Ba’athist regime.
Editing by Dastan Muwaffaq