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Heckler & Koch weapons: controversial deals with Mexico
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
The authorities had waved through the exports due to false information about their ultimate whereabouts: After several illegal arms deliveries to Mexican unrest provinces, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) confirmed the suspended sentences against two former employees of Heckler & Koch.
The armaments company itself should pay more than three million euros to the state treasury, as the federal judges in Karlsruhe decided.
The chief criminal judges largely confirmed a ruling by the Stuttgart Regional Court from 2019. The former sales manager and a former clerk were guilty of this.
The BGH only wants to make a separate decision later on a smaller part of the sum to be collected by Heckler & Koch.
The BGH agreed with the legal opinion of the lower court that the entire proceeds from the illegal business should be skimmed off - without deducting the production costs.
Heckler & Koch was of the opinion that the company only had to pay 200,000 euros and had therefore appealed to the BGH.
It was now unsuccessful.
According to the presiding judge Jürgen Schäfer, the board of directors of Heckler and Koch was not involved in the criminal acts, but had to take responsibility for missteps by employees.
No conviction under the War Weapons Control Act
Between 2006 and 2009, Heckler & Koch sold more than 4,200 G36 assault rifles, including accessories, to Mexico for around 3.7 million euros.
There the weapons were sent to police in unrest provinces.
The export permits were obtained by fraudulently stating uncritical target regions, which were untrue.
This became known in 2010 via a whistleblower and reported by an activist.
The pivotal point in the Stuttgart proceedings were the so-called end-use declarations from the Mexican authorities, which were included in the approval process, in which the final destination of the weapons is described.
The prosecutor had accused the defendants of knowing that the information in question was incorrect.
Heckler & Koch delivered despite this knowledge.
The two employees were therefore convicted of violating the Foreign Trade Act.
The public prosecutor had unsuccessfully sought a more severe conviction under the War Weapons Control Act.
The acquittals of three other defendants had already become final.
The two alleged main culprits had not been on trial in Stuttgart.
File number: 3 StR 474/19
apr / dpa / Reuters
