A German court convicts a businessman of delivering components with military use to Russia

BERLIN (AP) — A German court on Wednesday convicted a businessman of delivering electronic components to Russian firms associated with the production of military equipment, and sentenced him to six years and nine months in prison.

The 59-year-old defendant, a German-Russian dual citizen, was convicted of violating export laws. A statement from the Stuttgart state court didn’t identify him, in line with German privacy rules. Another dual citizen, a 54-year-old woman who was tried as a co-defendant, was given a suspended sentence of a year and nine months.

The court also ordered the confiscation of about 880,000 euros ($958,000), a sum corresponding with the proceeds of the sales.

The court said that the main defendant had been trading in electronic components for more than 15 years and ran two companies in the Saarland region of western Germany. It found that, between January 2020 and May 2023, he delivered a total of more than 120,000 components to companies in Russia that are associated with the production of military material and accessories such as drones.

Judges found that, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the defendant tried to dodge European Union sanctions by stating in invoices and shipping documents that the components were going to recipients in Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey — but all the deliveries went to Russia.

The co-defendant, who was his partner and managed one of his companies, was accused of knowingly giving false information to suppliers about the destination of the components in some cases.