German confesses to selling rocket material to Iran

A 63-year-old German businessman accused of selling Iran 16 tons of graphite, used to make rocket nozzles, has confessed to the charges, a German court spokesman said Wednesday.

At the opening of his trial on April 8, the man told a state superior court in Koblenz, Germany that he rejected all 12 counts of the indictment.

But in a statement read out by his lawyer this week, the defendant confessed to the charges, the spokesman said.

The defendant is accused of breaking laws preventing illicit arms exports by declaring the graphite exported from 2005 to 2007 to be low grade. This would have avoided the need to apply for a government clearance which would almost certainly have been refused.

In 2007, Germany imposed a ban on exports of any graphite, even the low-grade type, to Iran.

German intelligence suspects the graphite was bought for Iran's missile program. Tehran is suspected of secretly developing nuclear weapons which could be delivered as the payload of the missiles.

The accused was chief executive of a firm that specialized in trading graphite.

Technical books say rocket nozzles are often made of graphite, which is a form of carbon.

Prosecutors said in February that the material was exported through a Turkish intermediary. Alert Turkish customs officers seized an additional 10 tons of graphite being trucked into Iran.