German businessman convicted of delivering components to Russian firms

BERLIN — 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.

柏林——周三，德国一家法院判定一名商人向与军用设备生产有关的俄罗斯公司提供电子元件罪名成立，判处其六年零九个月监禁。

这名59岁的被告拥有德国和俄罗斯双重国籍，他因违反出口管制法而被定罪。斯图加特州法院的声明没有透露他的身份，这符合德国的隐私保护规定。另一名拥有双重国籍的54岁女性作为共同被告受审，被判处一年零九个月的缓刑。

法院还下令没收约 88 万欧元（95.8 万美元），这笔款项与销售所得相符。

法院称，主被告从事电子元件贸易超过15年，并在德国西部萨尔州经营两家公司。法院认定，在2020年1月至2023年5月期间，他向俄罗斯从事军用物资及配件（例如无人机）生产的公司交付了超过12万个电子元件。

法官发现，在俄罗斯于 2022 年 2 月全面入侵乌克兰之后，被告试图通过在发票和运输文件中声称这些部件将运往香港、吉尔吉斯斯坦、哈萨克斯坦、阿拉伯联合酋长国和土耳其的收件人来规避欧盟制裁——但所有货物都运往了俄罗斯。

共同被告是他的合伙人，也是他的一家公司的经理，被指控在某些情况下故意向供应商提供有关零部件目的地的虚假信息。