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Nuremberg (dpa / lby) - In the process of evading import duties when importing solar modules before the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court, the six defendants were acquitted.

The 3rd criminal chamber justified the decision with an insufficiently defined criminal liability, as a spokesman for the court said on Wednesday.

The judges stated that the legal provisions of the accused contained references to different laws. It was therefore not clear to the accused what was and what was not, according to the judges. The public prosecutor had previously pleaded that the evidence should be continued. The defense had declared the behavior of their clients to be not criminal. If the public prosecutor's office should file an appeal as announced after the verdict on Wednesday, the next step would have to be the Federal Court of Justice to deal with the case.

The public prosecutor's office had essentially accused the two Chinese women and four Germans of having circumvented the import duties that were applicable until 2018 when importing solar modules.

A former Frankish local politician was also among the defendants.

At the time in question he was employed by a solar module company.

The process was resumed after a trial in 2019.

Four of the six defendants were temporarily in custody.

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According to the indictment, the accused are said to have withheld more than 21 million euros in customs duties from the tax authorities.

To do this, they would have calculated a minimum price from which import duties were lifted.

In retrospect, however, the minimum import price was again discounted with tricks - for example, by means of noticeably low construction costs for solar parks.

The EU and China have since abolished this form of tariff.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210505-99-479517 / 3