Swiss War Materiel and Arms Exports

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Failed Swiss nuclear supply route to Iran

Goods category: Export-control case involving mostly unlisted, specially controlled industrial goods; Swiss list positions not established.

Ali Khamenei, Nowruz address, 20.03.2017 according to the file page.

CC BY 4.0

After German export refusals, dealers established Swiss company S. GmbH to supply metals and lubricants to a customer in Tehran through Switzerland. SECO refused the licences on 12 August 2009. The route failed; Germany’s R. GmbH continued the business and concealed the actual recipient or licensing requirement in exports from 2009 to 2011. The checks were prompted by suspected links between the customer and Iran’s nuclear programme. In 2015, the Hamburg Regional Court imposed suspended prison sentences of two years and eighteen months on two people involved. On 10 March 2016, the Federal Court of Justice left the convictions in place and remitted only the confiscation issues concerning the companies involved for a new decision.

Effect of the proposed War Materiel Act revision

Under the new Article 22b, the Federal Council could depart from all the licensing criteria in Article 22a under vaguely defined ‘exceptional circumstances’. The public would not have to be informed. The Federal Council could add Iran to Annex 2 by amending the War Materiel Ordinance. This would remove the exclusion criterion based on participation in an armed conflict and make approval the rule. The Federal Council could refuse a licence only in exceptional cases. Article 18 paragraph 1 would abolish non-re-export declarations in the vast majority of cases. Weapons for Iran could thus easily be supplied through a subsidiary or intermediary in a third country.

Countries

Time period

2008–2011; Swiss refusal in 2009; German judgments in 2015–2016

Sources