DIRECTOR CHARGED

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32323, 15 June 1970, Page 11

DIRECTOR CHARGED

Swiss Arms Trial tN t P.A -Reuter —Copyright) BERNE, June 14. The director of Switzerland’s biggest weapons-manu-facturing firm is among seven people soon to face trial in connection w'ith the alleged! illegal export of 88,700.000.' Swiss francs (about 818,216,000) worth of arms, justice officials said in Berne yesterday. He is Dr Dieter Buehrle, I aged 48, head of the familyowned Zurich company Oerli-j kon Buehrle, and also a] colonel in the Swiss Army. The Ministry of Justice said In January, 1969, soon after! starting an inquiry which 1 rocked the whole Swiss arms; industry, that 52.700,000 francs (about $ll million) worth of Oerlikon Buehrle arms exported illegally between 1963 and 1968 had gone) to South Africa. Israel received 19,500,000 francs (about $3 million) worth, and smaller quantities were sent to Nigeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon. The arms included anti-air-craft and other guns, air-to-air rockets and ammunition.

Last year the ministry blamed Dr Buehrle for fail-! ing to stop the illegal ex- 1 ports, but his lawyer then said that Dr Buehrle had known nothing of the illegal transactions until they had been completed. The seven accused of providing false documents and false information to get export permits for the arms, and giving untruthful information about their destination, will be tried by a federal court