ROTTERDAM, Netherlands: A Dutch court has opened hearings in the case of a businessman accused of helping ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam commit genocide by selling ingredients for chemical weapons to Baghdad.

62-year-old Frans Van Anraat appeared in a high-security Rotterdam court Friday to face charges of complicity in war crimes and genocide.

The case is seen as a landmark because it would be the first time a businessman has been prosecuted for war crimes by a national court.

According to Dutch prosecutors van Anraat supplied thousands of tons of agents for poison gas that the former Iraqi government used in the 1980-1988 Iran war and against its own Kurdish civilians, including a 1988 attack on the town of Halabja that left at least 5,000 people dead.

Prosecutors said the businessman knew that Saddam might use them as weapons.

Van Anraat, faces up to life in prison if convicted, was not required to enter a plea or make a statement at the pretrial hearing. His trial starts in November.

He has acknowledged that he sold chemicals to Saddam's regime, but said his actions were neither wrong nor illegal.

Prosecutor Fred Teeven said investigators had strong evidence that Van Anraat calmly went ahead with delivering base materials even after the alleged gas attack, the Dutch broadcaster NOS reported.

Several dozen expatriate Iraqi Kurds came to watch the proceedings, some carrying photographs of family members killed in the attacks.

“The fact that victims from 17 years ago are present here today and that this case has aroused emotions, especially within the Kurdish community, is a fact that will have escaped nobody,” Teeven said.

The prosecutors say evidence against Van Anraat includes “official Iraqi documents” - material which may also be used against Saddam when he goes before the Iraqi Special Tribunal on war crimes charges.

Van Anraat fled to Iraq in 1989 to avoid an extradition request by the United States, which wanted to prosecute him for export violations in the same chemicals sale. He returned to the Netherlands after the start of the US-led invasion in 2003, and has been under arrest here since December 2004.

Iranian and Iraqi victims of chemical attacks plan to seek up to 10,000 euros ($13,430) compensation each from the accused, a lawyer for the group said, while a group of Kurds demonstrated outside the court, holding pictures of Halabja victims.