Giftgasopfer aus Halabja verklagen deutsche Firmen

Dreißig Jahre hat es gedauert, nun endlich kommt die Klage:

Halabja victims have filed a multi-billion lawsuit against several German companies they accuse of helping the former Iraqi regime produce and use the chemical weapons that killed and injured thousands of people 30 years ago.

MM-LAW, an American law firm specializing in cases of crimes against humanity, filed the case in the Halabja Civil Court on Tuesday. 

Lawyer Gavi Mairone revealed the German companies named in the case, saying they "have a mountain of evidence."

An estimated 5,000 people lost their lives and another 10,000 were injured when the Iraqi regime attacked the city on March 16, 1988, during the last year of the Iraq-Iran war. It is the largest chemical attack against a civilian population in history.

Mairone said that many of his clients are not motivated by the money, but a desire to ensure such an attack cannot happen again. "I don't want any other mother to go through what I have gone through," he recounted what his clients tell him. 

Faisal Aziz, 44, married and father of four, is one of the plaintiffs. He suffered minor lung injuries from the attack. Four of his family members, two brothers and two sisters, were less fortunate.