Israel Matzav

Germany arrests four for sanctions violations

Speaking of Germany, four people have been arrested and charged with violating sanctions against Iran by selling parts for a heavy water reactor to Iranians under pretext that they were being sold to neighboring Azerbaijan.

Prosecutors said some 90 customs officers arrested the men - one German and three with dual German and Iranian citizenship, at their homes in the northern cities of Hamburg and Oldenburg and the eastern town of Weimar, and searched flats and offices.

"In 2010 and 2011 the suspects are believed to have helped in the delivery of special valves for the construction of a heavy water reactor in Iran and therefore to have broken the Iran embargo," prosecutors said in a statement on Wednesday.

To avoid export controls, the men are suspected of having described the customer as a firm based in Turkey and Azerbaijan.

"The deliveries were part of an order worth several million euros which Iran was trying to use to secure the necessary valve technology to make a heavy water reactor," said the prosecutors.

The men were therefore suspected of breaking Germany's law on foreign trade and breaching military weapons controls.

I wonder how many of the four were Revolutionary Guards affiliated with the Iranian embassy in Berlin. That's standard operating procedure for Iran.

Labels: German-Iranian trade, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:36 PM