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Karlsruhe (dpa) - An unauthorized export of pistols from the weapons manufacturer Sig Sauer to Colombia concerns the Federal Court of Justice (BGH).
The highest German criminal court should clarify whether the state may collect 11.1 million euros of the assumed profit from the deal.
The weapons manufacturer delivered more than 47,000 SP 2022 pistols to a sister company in the USA between 2009 and 2011.
Of these, more than 38,000 were re-exported to Colombia.
However, only export to America was approved.
The case raises numerous legal questions, said the presiding judge Jürgen Schäfer on Thursday at the hearing in Karlsruhe.
The BGH wants to announce its verdict on July 1st (2 p.m.).
In April 2019, the Kiel Regional Court imposed suspended sentences and high monetary requirements against three defendants.
It was seen as proven that the former managing directors of the Eckernförde location were responsible for exporting the arms business.
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The BGH has now revised three companies of the company against the Kiel judgment (Az. 3 StR 518/19).
You are against the collection of the 11.1 million euros - from the court's point of view, the profit from the illegal arms deliveries to Colombia.
Sig Sauer's three companies are calling for the regional court ruling to be set aside.
They are of the opinion that the exports could in principle also have been approved as re-exports to Colombia.
They also pointed out that some of the weapons remained in the USA as the country of destination.
From the point of view of the representative of the Federal Prosecutor's office, however, the revisions must be completely rejected.
"They were all prohibited exports."
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Peace activists hope that the BGH will confirm the verdict. “It would be a chilling signal to the armaments industry,” said Holger Rothbauer, lawyer for “Aktion Aufschrei - Stop the Arms Trade”, who in 2014 filed a complaint against those responsible for Sig Sauer on behalf of the campaign. "The amount of confiscation in the Sig-Sauer case is historic," he said. The ruling of the regional court made clear to the arms industry with the confiscation of the entire sales proceeds: "Illegal arms trade is never worthwhile."
Rothbauer referred to the judgment of the same BGH Senate on Heckler & Koch on March 30th.
The BGH had confirmed that the confiscation of more than three million euros for illegal arms exports to Mexico was legal (Az. 3 StR 474/19).
According to a SIG-Sauer lawyer, the current case differs from the Heckler & Koch case "in all points".
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210506-99-495594 / 3
PM of the BGH