A Dutch businessman who sold chemicals for weapons production to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has pleaded guilty to war crime charges.

The Dutch Supreme Court found Frans van Anraat guilty of providing Saddam Hussein with US and Japanese chemicals, which were used to produce poison gas.

Van Anraat was initially sentenced to 17 years in prison in May 2007, but his sentence was slightly reduced to 16.5 on Tuesday.

The gases are said to have been used against Iranians 'more than 300 times' during the Iraq-Iran war in (1980-1988).

Iraq's chemical attack has left as many as 100,000 victims in Iran, who continue to suffer the long-term effects of chemical agents.

They were also used to kill around 5,000 people in a 1988 attack on the Kurdish Iraqi town of Halabja, which had a population of about 80,000 people.

Iraq initially denied using chemical weapons against Iranians, but the UN released a report suggesting that "Iraqi forces have used chemical warfare against Iranian forces …the use of chemical weapons appear[ed] to be more extensive [in 1981] than in 1984."

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