Germans Accused of Aiding Iraqi Military

Just as the possibility of an American-led war against Iraq is seeming imminent -- despite strong German opposition -- a trial in Germany of two businessmen charged with delivering technology to Iraq to produce a long-range canon capable of launching chemical or biological warheads got underway.

A court in Mannheim began hearing charges on Tuesday against Bernd Schompeter, 59, and Willi Heinz Hermann Ribbeck, 54, from the town of Pforzheim in southern Germany.

Accused of helping Iraq develop "Supergun"

The two stand accused of organizing several deliveries of machinery worth 250,000 euro ($264,120) suitable for drilling the barrel of a 33-foot-long "supergun" or canon to Iraq in 1999. The drills are designed specifically for the manufacture of huge artillery components with a range of more than 35 miles (55 km).

It is not clear whether Iraq has actually built any of the long-range guns yet, but German prosecutors have been reported as saying that the gun, which has a 209 mm bore, is capable of firing biological or chemical shells.

Schompeter (photo) and Hermann Ribbeck are also accused of breaching strict German weapons export laws and a U.N. weapons embargo imposed after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Shady deals

District Attorney Stephan Morweiser said at the outset of the trial that Schompeter, a mechanical engineer, had used fictitious firms in 1999 and acted as a middleman in an Iraqi operation to procure machine tools to drill the gun’s barrel.

Schompeter is accused of then contacting co-defendant Hermann Ribbeck (photo, right), head of distribution at a German firm.

Together they are believed to have obtained the equipment and arranged for it to be exported to Jordan in 1999, from where it was shipped via a shell company to Iraq.

Schompeter’s lawyer, Günter Urbanzcyk, has said that his client is not a weapons dealer. "He only made the contact between the two firms," Urbanzcyk said.

Schompeter, meanwhile, has admitted to his dealings with Iraq and said that the order for the drilling tools had come from Jordan.

The defendant, however, said it was not until the equipment was being delivered that he realized that it could also be used for military purposes. "I didn’t really know about it. I only assumed," Schompeter said.

Further charges

The two defendants face jail terms of up to 15 years if found guilty. They are also charged with supplying Iraq with parts worth $80,000 (75,75 euro) for Ukrainian MiG aircraft in 1997 and 1998.

The two men also face charges of preparing deliveries of rocket launchers, mortar, canons, machine guns and bullets worth $65 million to an unnamed African country in September 2001, though it remains unclear if the deliveries took place.

German companies implicated in Iraq weapons program

The Mannheim trial has once again drawn attention to the role played by German individuals and companies in supplying weapons technology and technical know-how to Iraq, in many cases after 1990 when the U.N. embargo came into effect.

The Berlin-based newspaper Tageszeitung ruffled feathers last month with its explosive information that the 12,000-page Iraq weapons dossier submitted to the U.N. listed over 80 German companies that had contributed to the Iraqi government’s weapons program since the mid-1970s. Among them were the high-profile electronics giant Siemens and car-maker DaimlerChrysler.

Several investigations are also under way in Germany probing the role of German companies in Iraq in the post-1990 period.

Even Alwiro, the Mannheim-based trading company allegedly used by the accused in the current trial to ship the goods, is believed to be cited in the Iraqi weapons dossier.

The trial will continue on Thursday and a verdict is expected by January 31.