Russian Charged With Smuggling WMD Materials to Iran

Tag : Used Chemical Equipment
The founder of a Russian company involved in tradewith Iran has been charged with trying to smuggle a metal that canbe used for weapons of mass destruction or delivery systems to theIslamic republic, prosecutors said Thursday.
The metal in question is tantalum, the Russian Prosecutor General'sOffice said. It can be used in the production of chemicalprocessing equipment, nuclear reactors and missile parts, and issubject to export restrictions under Russian law.
Tantalum powder, a super-grade chemical, can also be used in themanufacture of mobile phones, personal computers, motor vehiclesand electronics goods.
Prosecutors in southern Russia's Astrakhan region, across theCaspian Sea from Iran, have sent their case against Anar Godzhayevto court, the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement. Thatmeans Godzhayev, a citizen of Uzbekistan, could face trial soon.
He and his lawyers were not immediately available to comment.Godzhayev is being held in Astrakhan.
Prosecutors claim Godzhayev lied about the contents of an outgoingshipment in customs documents after a business partner, in July2007, asked him to send more than a ton of materials containingtantalum to Iran. He was detained after customs officials checkedthe shipment in a container on a boat due to leave for Iran.