Brussels, 03/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - The supply and installation in Iran of a sintering furnace in working condition but not yet ready for use for the benefit of a third party which intends to use it to manufacture nuclear missile components for an entity subject to restrictive measures are prohibited, the EU Court of Justice rules in a judgment on 21 December 2011 (Case C-72/11).
The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf (Germany) called on the CJEU to interpret Council Regulation 423/2007 which institutes a number of restrictive measures against Iran to apply pressure on it to end its proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities. The regulation above all bans the direct or indirect use of funds or economic resources to or for the benefit of natural or legal persons, entities or bodies listed in annexes to the regulation including, inter alia, the industrial group Shahid Hemmat (SHIG). The regulation also prohibits, activities carried out “knowingly or intentionally”, the object or effect of which is to directly or indirectly circumvent the prohibition. Finally, the same regulation lists the heat treatment furnaces capable of temperatures that are proliferation sensitive, thus making their export, direct or indirect, to Iran subject to prior authorisation.
In the case in hand, Messrs Afrasiabi, Sahabi and Kessel are suspected of having violated the regulation by their participation in the delivery and installation in Iran of a ceramic sintering furnace manufactured by the German company FCT-Systeme GmbH, of which Kessel is the director. In 2007, the latter had supplied the furnace - without the software necessary for the furnace to be used - to the Iranian company Emen Survey, headed by Afrasiabi and suspected of in fact being a subcontractor operating on behalf of the SHIG.
The German court, when called upon to give its verdict regarding the opening of legal proceedings, asks the CJEU: - whether the prohibition on indirectly supplying a furnace in the meaning of the regulation also includes the provisions and installation of the furnace in working order but not operational for a third person in Iran, who is said to have planned to manufacture prohibited components on behalf of a third party (SHIG); - and to interpret the notion of “knowingly or intentionally” with regard to circumvention of the regulation. (FG/transl.jl)