Germany Investigating 7 Firms for Evidence of Deals with Iraq

Government agents searched the headquarters of seven companies in various parts of Germany on Wednesday for evidence of illegal deals with Iraq.

The firms are suspected of having helped Iraq produce chemical weapons and improve the range of its Scud missiles.

Authorities said some companies may still be supplying that country in violation of the U.N. embargo.

Germany’s new political initiative in the Middle East, highlighted by Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher’s current trip to Cairo, Damascus and Amman, following his visit to Israel last month, is an attempt to blunt charges that the German economy helped Saddam Hussein prepare for aggression, commentators here say.

But according to the commentators, Bonn has yet to demonstrate the political will to bring the managers of the suspect companies to court.

Meanwhile, the new justice minister of the federal state of Baden-Wurtemberg said Thursday he may bring new charges against Jurgen Hippenstiel-Imhausen, founder and manger of a chemical company who is serving a five-year prison sentence for illegal sales to Libya.

Hippenstiel-Imhausen was convicted of violating export regulations by selling Libya material and technology to build a poison gas plant at Rabta.

According to Justice Minister Helmut Ohnewald, Hippenstiel-Imhausen made $50 million profit on the deal, which he then hid away in bank accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere.

Ohnewald believes Hippenstiel-Imhausen should not be allowed to profit from his illegal activities.

While under German law the money cannot be confiscated, the offender could be prosecuted for tax evasion on the amount in question, which Ohnewald said he intends to do.

Political pressure has been mounting to punish Hippenstiel-Imhausen, who is said to be enjoying extraordinary privileges at the Mannheim prison, where he has been confined since last summer. He runs his business from prison and enjoys unlimited visits from friends and relatives.