By Patrick Donahue

Source:

August 19, 2010

German authorities filed charges against two men accused of arranging the shipment to Iran of heating equipment that the Persian Gulf nation could potentially use to support its long-range missile program.

The two men — identified as Heinz Ulrich K., a German citizen, and Iranian national Mohsen A. — are accused of violating an arms embargo and the European Union’s export ban on dual-use equipment to Iran, prosecutors in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe said today in an e-mailed statement. The two shipped a vacuum sintering furnace in July 2007 for 850,000 euros ($1.1 million), according to the charges.

The United Nations has passed four rounds of sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program, which the U.S. and many of its allies say is being used to create a nuclear weapon. The Iranian government denies the accusations, saying the program is for peaceful energy use.

As part of the sanctions regime, the EU has banned the export of equipment that could have military relevance in Iran. Vacuum sintering furnaces, which are necessary to construct parts for a missile’s guidance system and warheads, fall under the embargo because long-range missiles could carry in their payload weapons of mass destruction, the prosecutors said.

Iran’s ballistic-missile program was targeted alongside uranium enrichment during the last round of sanctions passed by the UN Security Council in June.

Authorities said that Heinz Ulrich K., the director of a German company, agreed to set up the equipment in Iran in 2008. He halted the activity in March that year after he was informed by German export officials that Mohsen A.’s company had ties to Iran’s missile program, according to the prosecutors.

Mohsen A., an Iranian businessman who was already charged by prosecutors with similar offenses earlier this year, had been contracted in 2004 at the latest by “a leading official in the Iranian missile program” to obtain the furnace. He contacted Heinz Ulrich K. through another Iranian suspect, identified as Behzad S.

Heinz Ulrich K. isn’t yet in custody, prosecutors said.

–Editors: Eddie Buckle, Alan Crawford.