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German authorities arrest man for smuggling to Iran

October 17, 2009

Authorities are questioning a businessman over the sale of two high-tech furnaces to Iran. Two other people are under investigation for assisting him with the deal worth 2.8 million euros ($4.1 million).

https://p.dw.com/p/K99p
A missile being test-fired in Iran in 2008
German authorities feared the furnaces could be used to build launch facilities for Iranian missilesImage: AP

German police have arrested a man they say was exporting equipment to Iran that could be used for missile-building.

German federal prosecutors identified the man on Saturday as Mohsen A., a 52 year old businessman with Iranian citizenship. He was taken into custody after authorities searched several residences and businesses in the states of Thuringia, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg and Bavaria. They were also investigating a 64-year-old German national and a 49-year-old man with dual German-Iranian citizenship.

They are accused of selling a sintering furnace, used to weld metal parts at extremely high temperatures, to Iran in 2007. Such equipment can be used to build long-range missile launching components, and German law forbids their export to Iran, which is under a United Nations embargo.

Prosecutors said that in July 2008, the group was in the process of exporting a second furnace to a front company in Asia that would have sent it on to Iran.

svs/dpa/AP/AFP
Editor: Ranty Islam

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