Reagan Actions Cited in Exporter’s Retrial Request
In the wake of disclosures of the Reagan Administration’s covert arms deals with Iran, the attorney for an Encino businessman convicted of shipping military parts to that country asked for a new trial Friday.
The motion for a new trial was filed in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of Iranian-born Hassan Kangarloo, who in September was found guilty of violating export-control laws and filing false shipping documents.
“What if the jury knew, ‘Hey, Ronald Reagan is shipping the stuff right now,’ ” said Donald B. Marks of Beverly Hills, Kangarloo’s lawyer. “I had a right to that information.
“The jury was told my client was putting the national security at risk,” Marks added. “The government was violating the embargo it accused my client of breaching. It’s outrageous misconduct that could void a conviction even if there is evidence of guilt.”
But a prosecutor in the case said the Administration’s “foreign policy” decisions were irrelevant in the Kangarloo case.
Several Cases Under Attack
Kangarloo’s is one of several arms-export cases under legal attack after disclosures that President Reagan approved shipments of U.S.-made missiles and weapons parts to Iran beginning last year. Aside from that once-covert operation, the federal government has banned arms and military parts sales to Iran since 1979.
Kangarloo, 27, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He is serving the term at Terminal Island Federal Penitentiary.
The government proved only that Kangarloo had exported $100,000 worth of parts for military radios to his homeland. However, transcripts of taped conversations with undercover federal agents quote Kangarloo as boasting that he had exported $81 million worth of U. S. military hardware to Iran from 1981 to 1984. Prosecutors said the equipment included jet-fighter parts, reconnaissance cameras and tank engines.
The recent disclosures that the President authorized secret negotiations with Iran over arms and American hostages in Lebanon quickly developed into a controversy that has thrown the Administration into disarray and prompted a congressional investigation.
Reports of the covert operation have prompted conflicting statements by Justice Department officials. A department spokesman, John Russell, said earlier that the White House arms shipments “raise legal questions” about whether convicted arms dealers should remain in prison.
But a prosecutor in the Kangarloo case, Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey Modisett, said Friday that no re-evaluation of arms cases is expected. “Our investigations have continued unabated. The prosecutions will continue,” he said.
Modisett termed the Kangarloo defense motion a “smokescreen” and said the Administration’s arms operation was a “foreign policy decision” irrelevant to violations of export law by private citizens.
“His attorney is taking something that everybody’s aware of and trying to muddle the issue,” said Modisett. “The issue is that Mr. Kangarloo did not apply for an export license. He deprived the United States of giving any advice on the arms, let alone authorization.”
Modisett said the radio parts shipped by Kangarloo are on the U. S. Munitions List--a State Department tally of military hardware--and so Kangarloo would have needed a license to transfer the parts to any foreign country. “The executive branch has to make these foreign policy decisions, not individuals,” he said.
In the motion filed Friday, Marks wrote that the White House arms transfers represent newly discovered evidence, making another trial necessary.
A State Department official testified during the trial that no export licenses for military hardware had been issued to Iran since 1979. Marks asked for any government documents relating to exports of items to countries, including Iran, that were also listed in Kangarloo’s indictment. No records were turned over.
