Germany is investigating electronic component makers that sold equipment to Iran for its atomic program after being duped by middlemen that the parts were bound for Russia, a state prosecutor said.
Six companies are linked to sales or planned sales in 2003 and 2004 of components ordered by a Berlin-based front company, said Potsdam, Brandenburg-state prosecutor Benedikt Welfens. One of the six may have been aware of the final destination of its components.
“The parts were very peripheral to Iran’s atomic program and the sum involved small, but we’re probing whether the Berlin bridgehead had wider links to German companies,” Welfens said.
Forty-one firms have come under scrutiny since police seized documents and other material from the Berlin importer, whose personnel have disappeared, he said.
The revelations Monday night came just days before representatives of the United Nations Security Council are to hold talks in Berlin on Friday to step up diplomatic pressure on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program. Iran argues that its atomic activities are for peaceful purposes.
The front company, staffed by Russians or citizens of the former Soviet republics, bought the parts, including special cables, for $3.62 million, Welfens said. Iran imported the components, which can be used for civilian or weapons purposes, over the Caspian Sea.
