W. Germany Holds 7 for Aiding Iraq on Poison Gas Facilities

West German authorities Friday arrested seven people, including a former intelligence officer of Iraqi descent, and accused them of helping Iraq build poison gas installations, a state prosecutor said.

Friedrich Hoffmann, a senior state prosecutor in Darmstadt, said the suspects are suspected of violating West German export legislation by selling sensitive technology to Iraq.

He said investigations have been under way for several years because the authorities needed to prove the technology was destined for use in poison gas factories, which are similar to herbicide manufacturing plants.

Hoffmann said among those arrested was a man identified as Al Khadi, 51, a West German citizen of Iraqi descent who once worked for the Federal Information Service, the West German intelligence agency comparable to the CIA.

In 1987, Khadi, who had also served as a representative of the West German firm Preussag in Iraq, was sentenced to death by the Iraqi authorities for spying. After intervention by senior West German officials, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Khadi was later released and allowed to return to West Germany.

Hoffmann said employees of the Pilot Plant, Preussag and Water Engineering Trading firms were among those arrested, but stressed that the companies were not believed to have been involved in the illegal deals.

The arrests followed claims in the West German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel that West Germans had played a major role in the development of nerve gas factories in Iraq.

In its latest edition, the magazine said Khadi had supplied chemical installations to Iraq through the Hamburg-based WET, of which he is a part owner and manager.

The magazine said the factory was designed to produce lethal Tabun and Sarin nerve gases. It said Iraq also bought from WET tons of components used for the production of nerve gases.

Der Spiegel said Preussag employees had worked together with Khadi on the project.

The arrests follow a string of scandals over the export to potential conflict areas of technology for chemical and biological warfare.

In June, a West German industrialist was sentenced to five years imprisonment for helping build a chemical weapons plant in Rabta, near the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the West German Defense Ministry said the East German military is still training Iraqi and Libyan officers.

The spokesman said the authorities in Bonn have asked the East German government to cancel the training agreements.