German firms smuggled nuclear material to Iran: prosecutor
POTSDAM (Thomson Financial) - German prosecutors on Thursday said they are investigating some 50 companies suspected of smuggling technology to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant via Russia.
Berlin-based company Vero is suspected of having smuggled material to build the nuclear reactor through Poland to Moscow, from where it was taken to Iran, said Christoph Lange from the prosecutor's office in Potsdam near Berlin, Agence France-Presse reported.
He said Vero appeared to have been buying up nuclear technology in Germany and elsewhere in Europe since 2000 at the orders of Russia, which is constructing Iran's first nuclear power plant in the town of Bushehr.
Lange said prosecutors have so far only traced material worth about 5 mln eur, but that this appeared to be the tip of the iceberg. Up to 150 mln eur worth of material may have left Germany for Iran, he estimates.
The companies being probed have claimed that the material was destined for Russia but at least a dozen of them must have known that Iran was the final destination, Lange said.
Only one of the companies under investigation is seated in the former communist East Germany. It is believed to have exported parts for a crane meant to be used in the Bushehr reactor to Russia in 2001 and 2002.
In 2004, a company employee was arrested in the east German state of Saxony-Anhalt on suspicion of smuggling technology destined for Iran to Russia.
Russia said earlier this month that the Bushehr plant will not be completed before 2008.
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