The French court has ruled the admissibility of FIDH and its member organization LDH as civil parties alongside the Kurdish plaintiffs in the criminal investigation for “complicity to murder, attempted complicity and concealment of the proceeds of these crimes” opened last year.
Saddam Hussein’s forces wiped out some 5.000 people and injured thousands more in the sustained chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988. Victims continue to suffer devastating long-term consequences, from cancers to birth defects.
This case raises the question of corporate criminal liability and should shed light on the involvement of French companies aiding repressive regimes, in this instance by supplying chemical weapons. FIDH is particularly involved in corporate criminal liability, similarly filing cases against French companies Qosmos and Amesys for criminal complicity in Syria and Libya.
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See also France: Opening of a judicial investigation targeting Qosmos for complicity in acts of torture in Syria