BREAKING NEWS: An Iranian Court ordered a company to pay compensation to five Iranians who Saddam used chemical weapons against in the 1980s

This news came in from AP News.  The channel did a story on this court case earlier this year.  An Iranian court has ordered a company to pay compensation to five Iranians who suffered chemical weapons attacks by Iraq in the 1980s after the company failed to defend itself against accusations that it supplied raw materials for poison gas attacks.

After failing to appear in court to defend itself against civil claims that it supplied raw materials for poison gas, a Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that a company must compensate five Iranian victims of Iraq's chemical weapons attacks in the 1980s.

The Hague court cleared a second company of liability in the same case, finding that the company was unaware that mustard gas would be made from chemicals it sold to Saddam Hussein.

The five Iranians were permanently injured after three Iraqi mustard gas attacks in 1984 and 1986 during the Iran-Iraq war, the court said. It was argued that the two companies knew or should have known that mustard gas would be made with thionyl chloride sold to Iraq.

A court upheld the claim against Forafina Beleggingen I B.V., formerly known as KBS Holland, after the company failed to appear.

According to lawyers for the company cleared, now called Otjiaha B.V., Melchemie did not know the chemical would be used by Iraq for mustard gas production.

In the 1980s, it was not widely known that the Iraqi regime used mustard gas in the war against Iran, let alone that it used thionyl chloride to make that gas.

The court said that in the early 1980s, the Dutch government encouraged trade with Iraq and did not impose any export restrictions on thionyl chloride.

The previous Iraqi Dictator was accused of using chemical weapons on his own people.  You can read here:  When Did the Iran-Iraq Begin and Why?