DaimlerChrysler drawn into probe over illegal truck sales to Iran

AFP: German investigators probing the possible illegal sale of lorries to Iran have searched offices at giant automaker DaimlerChrysler, the company said on Saturday. A DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman confirmed a report set to be published on Monday in German weekly Focus. AFP

BERLIN – German investigators probing the possible illegal sale of lorries to Iran have searched offices at giant automaker DaimlerChrysler, the company said on Saturday.

A DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman confirmed a report set to be published on Monday in German weekly Focus. The search took place at the end of November, the spokeswoman said.

According to Focus the German authorities suspect that 453 lorries originally destined for Saudi Arabia may instead have been diverted to Iran.

According to military experts, the lorries could be converted for military purposes.

A spokeswoman quoted by Focus at the prosecutor’s office in the southern German city of Stuttgart, where DaimlerChrysler is based, said that an inquiry was underway into unnamed managers at the company alleged of breaking export laws.

Investigators searched offices at the DaimlerChrysler headquarters and at the DaimlerChrysler truck factory at Woerth, in the southwest of the country.