Germans face Iraq supergun charges

By Angus Roxburgh BBC correspondent in Mannheim

Two German businessmen have gone on trial accused of delivering weapons-making equipment to Saddam Hussein's regime in contravention of a United Nations embargo.

The equipment could have enabled the Iraqis to produce a long-range cannon, capable of launching chemical or biological warheads.

Schompeter said he did not know the drill could make guns

The real interest in the case is the light it may shed on whether Saddam Hussein has continued to acquire state-of-the-art weaponry, despite the UN ban that has been in place since he invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Both defendants, men in their mid- to late-fifties, have confessed to the main charge of having supplied drilling equipment to Iraq which could be used to manufacture huge artillery pieces with a range of more than 50 kilometres.

But in court, one of them, Bernd Schompeter, denied that he knew the equipment could be used to make large guns.

MIG fighter parts

Under UN resolutions, Iraq is allowed to possess long-range artillery, but the export of new weaponry, or weapon-making equipment, to the country is banned.

The equipment allegedly supplied by Mr Schompeter and his co-defendant, Willi Heinz Ribbeck, is said to have been shipped via middlemen in Jordan.

It is not known whether Iraq has actually built any of the long-range guns yet, but if it has they could be used against American or British invasion troops.

Mr Schompeter is also charged with supplying Iraq with spare parts from MIG fighter planes, procured in Ukraine, and with attempting to supply gun barrels made in Switzerland and a variety of missile-launchers and cannon routed through an African country.

In his opening remarks, Mr Schompeter gave no impression of being ideologically driven.

Rather, he came across as a somewhat unsuccessful businessman who had found himself working in the Middle East, making contacts in Iraq by selling sugar there, under the UN "oil for food" programme, and being enticed into a lucrative but illegal arms deal.