A 60-year-old Iraqi-US dual national went on trial Monday in Mannheim on charges of involvement in an illegal weapons deal with Iraq. The trial follows up on one last January of two Germans from the same company who were found guilty for their involvement in selling to Iraq high-precision drills used for making barrels for artillery. One man was given a five-year, three-month jail term and the other a two-year suspended term. The Iraqi-US suspect is also answering charges of circumventing German weapons exports laws in connection with those deals. Prosecutors say the suspect, as the owner of two companies in Jordan, served as a middle man for arms deals with Iraq. At the trial start, the man denied any involvement in the deals and said prosecutors had presented no solid evidence against him. His defence counsel said delivery of drilling equipment was neither planned nor carried out by the defendant.
"It was, ummm....somebody else". |