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German Sentenced Over Libyan Weapons Deal

DW staff (jg)June 14, 2008

A German court has given a two-year suspended prison sentence to a 74-year-old man who supplied Libya with equipment for use in chemical weapons during the 1990s. He was also fined 20,000 euros ($30,700).

https://p.dw.com/p/EJbv
Moammar Gadhafi
At the time, Libya was under an arms embargoImage: AP

Berge Aris Balanian admitted delivering various types of equipment, including a mechanism used in poison gas production to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

Two accomplices, businessmen Detlef Crusius and Udo Buczkowski, were jailed in 1997. But Balanian sought refuge in Lebanon before returning to Germany in 2006.

Libya was under an arms embargo at the time of the deal, which earned the three men 12 million deutsch marks (more than six million euros) according to the 1997 court ruling.

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