Chemicals trader Frans van Anraat, 63, was sentenced to 15 years' jail on December 23 on charges of aiding war crimes but was acquitted of complicity in genocide over the 1988 massacre of 5,000 Kurds by dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.

The court in The Hague ruled that while the former Iraqi ruler committed genocide against Kurds in the 1980s, it had not been proven that Van Anraat knew of the regime's genocidal intentions.

"The ruling on the legal question of complicity in genocide requires, according to the prosecutor, the judgement of a higher legal authority," the national prosecutor said in a brief statement.

Van Anraat, who lived as a fugitive in Iraq for 14 years until the United States-led invasion in 2003, was prosecuted after the Dutch supreme court ruled that national courts could try Dutch residents over genocide and war crimes committed in other countries.

Under international law, genocide carries a special burden of proof showing that a suspect had a specific intent or knew of a specific intent to commit genocide. The burden of proof is less for war crimes.

Van Anraat's lawyer said after the verdict he would lodge an appeal.