1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
German coalition collapseMiddle EastUS election

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.

Skip next section Explore more

Explore more

An Iranian technician works at the Uranium Conversion Facility

German on Trial for Role in Global Nuclear Mafia

German on Trial for Role in Global Nuclear Mafia

A German engineer’s trial started Thursday, June 5 for his role in a global nuclear mafia which sold weapons technology to regimes in Iran, North Korea and Libya. (05.06.2008)
June 5, 2008
Special police forces during a training exercise in Germany

Report: German Police Trained Libyan Forces for Decades

Report: German Police Trained Libyan Forces for Decades

In a developing scandal, a newspaper claims that German police have trained security forces in Libya for two decades, questioning government insistence that the training had been unauthorized and of recent date only. (14.04.2008)
April 14, 2008
Man aims a pistol

Berlin Denies Involvement in Libyan Police Training

Berlin Denies Involvement in Libyan Police Training

Berlin has denied any involvement with the German security firm accused of training high-level police in Libya between 2005 and 2007. Amid the uproar, some are asking: Where's the crime? (08.04.2008)
April 8, 2008