West German companies are still helping Libya produce poison gas despite the public scandal two years ago that supposedly put an end to it, the news weekly Der Spiegel reported.
The magazine said the ongoing collaboration has been confirmed by the BND, West Germany’s intelligence agency based in Munich.
But it is at sites other than the plant at Rabta, south of Tripoli, which was exposed late in 1988 as a producer of chemical weapons using German material, equipment and technology, Der Spiegel said.
The Immhausen Chemical Co. in Bavaria was implicated and its owner and chairman, Jurgen Immhausen, was taken into custody.
But the Rabta plant nevertheless continues to function, and is still a closed military area, the report said.
A spokesman for the opposition Green Party noted that more than a year after Immhausen’s arrest, no formal indictment has been issued.
The Bonn authorities have said they lack conclusive evidence of wrongdoing by German firms.
But the government has been forced to admit it had prior information about Immhausen’s and other companies’ heavy involvement in the production of poison gas by Libya.
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