Tokyo executives exported missile components to Iran
A Japanese court today convicted two executives of a Tokyo machinery-maker of illegally exporting equipment to Iran that could be used to make missile fuel.
The Tokyo District Court gave Haruhiko Ueda, 70, president of Tokyo-based Seishin Enterprise, a two-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence.
Akira Kamiya, 42, Seishin’s former South Korea branch manager, was given a suspended 18-month prison term. The court also ordered the company to pay a 15 million yen (€110,000) fine.
The court found the two had violated foreign exchange and customs laws, court spokesman Yukio Higeta said. The men won’t go to prison unless they commit another crime during the terms of their suspended sentences.
The court said the two men illegally exported two grinders that could be used to produce solid fuel for rockets and missiles to Iran in 1999 and 2000 without obtaining export permission from the government. They were arrested in June 2003.
Exporting the grinders is restricted under international guidelines established by the Missile Technology Control Regime, a pact signed by Japan, the United States and other countries to prevent the proliferation of missiles that could be used to deliver weapons of mass destruction.
