For the armaments company Rheinmetall , the business with the military in the Middle East is important – so important that the corporate owners have set up their own governor. He resides on the 14th floor of an office tower in the best location of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). From there, he should keep track of the branched businesses that Rheinmetall maintains in the region. Not an easy job – but in the early morning of February 16, 2017, the governor announced a particularly bold move by email: the delivery of armor technology to Eritrea.

The February 2017 email is one of a collection of documents  Stern and the Correctiv research center have seen. It is about MLG 27 marine guns, which Rheinmetall builds in Oberndorf, Swabia. Rheinmetall has delivered a total of 30 of them to the Emirates since 2009, for Baynunah corvettes and Ghannatha class speedboats. But in 2017, Rheinmetall had to deal with complaints of embarrassment of the Navy. In this regard, the Rheinmetall governor in Abu Dhabi announced in his February 2017 email that they had “agreed to a request from the Navy to upgrade an additional ship (in Eritrea !) With our upgrade kit to help them with their mission “.

Eritrea, then, is the dictatorially ruled country that is considered by many to be the North Korea of ​​Africa. In fact, since 2015, the United Arab Emirates Emirates has a military base here in the city of Assab on the coast of the country. The military from Abu Dhabi use this base for the bloody war in neighboring Yemen and for the controversial naval blockade that Emiratis and Saudi Arabia have imposed on the starving civil war country.

UN arms embargo for Eritrea since 2009

The “mission” that the Rheinmetall manager wanted to help with – that was obviously the Yemen war. Worse still, what the governor announced was possibly the planned breach of an arms embargo. The UN had already imposed this against Eritrea in 2009. Because the country supported terrorists in neighboring countries, the sanctions applied until November 2018. Until March 2019, Eritrea was one of the countries, including North Korea and Iran, for which, according to Article 74 of the German Foreign Trade Regulation, even the “transit” of military equipment was prohibited ,

Most recently, in November, an official UN Security Council expert report accused the United Arab Emirates of having “violated the arms embargo” against Eritrea by establishing the military base. Similar comments were made by UN experts in October 2016 on the expansion of the military base and the presence of foreign military equipment in Eritrea: the current embargo “does not allow such activities”.

The people at Rheinmetall can all have escaped bad. The Rheinmetall manager himself put an exclamation mark behind the name Eritrea, in his mail of February 2017.

On questions from  stern and Correctiv a Rheinmetall spokesman denied the delivery to Eritrea not, but at the same time “allegations” in relation to embargo violations “in no uncertain terms”. Make sure “strictly to” comply with all regulations. “We have no reason to assume that employees have overruled regulations in connection with naval guns intended for the UAE,” the spokesman wrote.

Subject Eritrea is downplayed in the Foreign Ministry

The two-and-a-half-year-old mail on Eritrea still embarrasses some people: not only at Rheinmetall, but also in the Foreign Ministry of the SPD politician Heiko Maas in Berlin. So far, they have been trying their best to ignore or downplay evidence of embargo embargo in Eritrea – probably because they did not want to spoil it with the rulers in Abu Dhabi. The diplomats were happy to answer any questions with the answer that they were “in dialogue with the United Arab Emirates”.

What’s going on in Assab is not easy to verify. The rulers of Eritrea have ensured that no unwelcome foreign visitors come near the Emirati base. Even diplomats stationed in the capital, Asmara, “need a travel permit to leave the capital,” the German Foreign Ministry reports on its website. In the case of “treason or espionage” the death penalty is imminent.

Ships of the types Baynunah and Ghannatha have been sighted on satellite images, videos and photos from Assab. The stern  had repeatedly reported about it as part of the research project #GermanArms since February 2019. Also in an official UN report, the presence of a Baynunah in Assab was already mentioned in early 2017. That Ghannatha-class ships were stationed in the port of Eritrea, was again a subject of a French intelligence report from September 2018, which became public in April.

Now, thanks to Rheinmetall’s mail, denial is even more difficult for Heiko Maas and his diplomats. Embarrassing the matter but also for the investigators in the field office Celle of the prosecutor Lüneburg, which the incriminating letter apparently also exists. The local prosecutors seem to attack the armaments company with obvious handshakes, in a controversial case by 15 million euros and the originating from Lebanon armaments lobbyist Ahmad El Husseini.

Expensive gift baskets to SPD politicians

The Rheinmetall governor had addressed the controversial letter on Eritrea to one of his four sons and an employee of the armistice lobby. The then still led the company Federal Development Establishment, which is also based in Abu Dhabi. She helped Thyssen-Krupp and Rheinmetall from at least 2012 in the execution of a frigate business with Algeria. At the same time sent El Husseini again and again at Christmas expensive gift baskets to SPD politicians like Gerhard Schröder and Frank-Walter Steinmeier; Stern and Correctiv reported on it at the end of September.

From 2015, El Husseini and Federal should also help Rheinmetall convince the Emiratis of the quality of MLG-27 guns from Germany. Because the Emiratis were dissatisfied with the hit rate of the cannon, they allegedly threatened not to pay the purchase price of 80 million euros and want to reverse the business. El Husseini and a sheikh associated with him from the local ruling family were to convince the Emiratis that the hit ratio was still good enough. They should, according to the agreement with Rheinmetall, “bring forward the arguments of the company” to “the political authorities of the end customers”. As a “success bonus” Rheinmetall transferred soon after contract 15 million euros – on an alleged blocked account.

But at the end of 2017, Rheinmetall announced El Husseini on suspicion of fraud. He had unlawfully looted the account. El Husseini’s lawyer contradicts the accusation. But the investigators in Celle made the accusation their own and accused El Husseini, his son and co-worker in May this year; The district court in Lüneburg has not yet decided on the admission.Not far from Celle, in Unterlüß in the Südheide, resides Rheinmetall’s main production site. It seems a bit like the prosecutors have been impressed. It does not seem to have caught the suspected embargo, nor did it help the defendants to reveal obvious contradictions in the statements of the Rheinmetall officials.

Testimony in Rheinmetall guesthouse

Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger could at least act in the process almost Gutsherrenart. For a witness hearing in August 2018, he did not have to appear at the police – which came to him in the feudal guest house of Rheinmetall in Unterlüß. Yes, he has known El Husseini for more than ten years, the manager said. Already the former CEO had worked with the native Lebanese. Everything always went well. But here in the case of the naval guns, the man had collected the money inappropriately – although his work was not done and the Emirati navy has not yet taken off the guns.

So the version of Rheinmetall. The passage of time, as far as it can be traced, does not seem to fit well with the official presentation of the group.

Namely, the Federal Government approved the exports of the 30 guns back in 2008 and 2009. From 2009, the first guns were delivered and installed in new warships of the Baynunah class for the Navy of the UAE. The first corvette of this class was christened in June at a shipyard in Cherbourg, France, with a decanter of water from Mecca instead of the usual champagne. The ships of the Ghannatha class delivered a Swedish manufacturer together with a shipyard in Abu Dhabi according to their own statements until 2014. Also the specialized service Jane’s reported the delivery of these warships already in February 2015.

Nevertheless, in 2015, the purchase price still has not flowed and the hit rate remained unclear?

This version actually represented a lawyer of Rheinmetall. In 2015, the Ghannatha ships were not even equipped with the Rheinmetall guns. Maybe the guns intended for these ships would even be exploited and their parts on the reeks, he whispered.

Assumptions instead of facts. In other documents is then very well talked about that ships of the Ghannatha class are equipped with the MLG 27 – and now only need to be retrofitted. El Husseini and his son had already succeeded in 2015 in persuading the Emiratis to start new shooting tests. Rheinmetall also supplied additional technology – apparently partly “pro bono”, so for lukewarm. Already in the mail from the governor in Abu Dhabi in February 2017, there was talk of “excellent shooting results” on a speedboat of the Ghannatha class. Also in February 2017, the Emiratis put the sixth and final Corvette of the Baynunah class into service. On pictures of the ceremony, one of the Rheinmetall guns is clearly visible. From reversal no trace.

Lobbyist El Husseini seems to have succeeded. Hamburg criminal lawyer Gerhard Strate, whom El Husseini’s son had hired as a lawyer, already asked if the 15 million euros were really just a success bonus – or if they were meant for more dubious purposes. The sum had been transferred so quickly from Rheinmetall to Abu Dhabi that it was easy to suspect that improper payments had been planned.

Like the warning on cigarette packets

Rheinmetall and Federal had contractually excluded all forms of bribery. But this passage reminded the lawyer of warnings on cigarette packets, which would also like to be ignored.

Nevertheless, Rheinmetall still “speculates” about possible payments to public officials “decidedly back”. And the corporation insists that “in the case of the delivery of naval guns to the United Arab Emirates from 2009 to 2015”, the “process of acceptance by the customer is still ongoing”.

The judiciary in Lower Saxony was not suspicious. According to her own statements, she checked whether corruption was involved – but then did not recognize “initial suspicion for any bribery actions”.

Whatever the case went, lack of acceptance or not – the ships are apparently still active off the coast of Yemen. Most recently satellite images of 2 September 2019 showed a Baynunah and two ships with the characteristics of Ghannatha in Assab.

Even the federal government seems to have helped the Rheinmetall people, despite the ongoing Yemen war, to retrofit naval guns for the Emirates. In a June 2016 email, two managers at the Rheinmetall plant in Oberndorf told a Colonel in Abu Dhabi at least some good news. For the retrofit technology for the MLG 27 on the vessels of the Baynunah class, they now have the green light from the German authorities.

Had the Federal Government agreed with the then Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Minister of Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel (both SPD), despite the participation of the UAE in the Yemen war? Although the export principles, which according to their own statements were “binding” for the then coalition, did not allow arms exports to countries like the UAE, if they were “involved in armed conflicts”?

The Ministry of Economic Affairs, led today by Peter Altmaier (CDU), did not want to answer this question. On individual cases, the government “basically” can not comment. In any case, in 2017, “no permit has been granted to Eritrea”. At the same time, please “understand that the Federal Government can not comment on documents which it does not have and conclusions drawn from them”.

Indignation with the Greens and the Left

Green Party member Katja Keul is now calling for political consequences: “Once again, it is clear that the United Arab Emirates do not have the international legal reliability in the sense of German principles,” she told stern : “One should therefore no longer allow arms exports to this third state. “

The member of parliament Sevim Dagdelen (left) also criticizes the federal government. It was “irresponsible that even proven violations of the former arms embargo against Eritrea are not a hindrance to further German arms sales” to the Emirates. As a member of the UN Security Council, the federal government is “simply unbelievable”.

And what about the planned deliveries to the Embargoland Eritrea? It is certain that the provisions and laws of Rheinmetall are known. Already in an internal organization instruction to the valid German export rules from the year 2014 the enterprise gave strict exhortations. “The proper application” of regulations such as the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance is “of the utmost importance” both for the employees and for the existence of the entire enterprise. The rules are therefore “compulsory to follow”.

In addition, employees were able to read what threatens the intentional break of an arms embargo under Section 74 of the Regulation: At least one year in prison.

Rheinmetall defends itself against the accusation

As I said: Rheinmetall rejects the charge of embargo. But the Tübingen lawyer and defense expert Holger Rothbauer now asks the investigators to take up the case: “At Rheinmetall was known that the export of armaments technology in an embargo country like Eritrea violated existing foreign trade law,” said the lawyer. “The authorities have apparently acted with intent and thus possibly committed a crime. With her, the attempt would already be punishable. That’s why the responsible prosecutor has to investigate this case ex officio. “