Gerhard Merz
From Powerbase
Chemical weapons trading
- He was born in Frankfurt in 1947. During his youth he stayed for a while in Israel. In 1963 he returned to Germany. Attempts to find information about his status and activities in Israel from the Interior Ministry and from other sources were unsuccessful. What Merz did for the next 30 years - from the time he left Israel until May 18, 1995 - is not known. At that time his name was included in an executive order signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton and sent to Congress, stating that Merz had been involved in "proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons" to Iran. (Clinton signed the order in November 1994; the date in May refers to his letter to Congress informing them of the fact; see [1])
- The sales were made from 1991 to 1993. Two of Merz's associates, Manfred Felber, an Austrian, and Luciano Moscatelli, an Australian, were also named in the presidential directive. It also listed several companies that the three owned, or which were connected with them. One of them, Mainway International, was registered in Bad Homburg, Germany, and in Hong Kong. According to the order, the three men and their companies were being blacklisted along with others who had violated the American and international embargo on trading with Iran in general, and in chemical warfare (CW) equipment, in particular. The order bars Americans from doing business with people and companies who are on the blacklist.
- Neither the order nor the involvement of the three generated serious interest in the international media, and so the subject did not come up on the public agenda. Not in Germany, not in Austria, not in Australia and not in the U.S. It was only four years later than an investigative report in Haaretz (January 1999) exposed the details of the sale of CW equipment to Iran. Surprisingly, it turned out that an Israeli businessman, Moshe Regev (Regenstreich) was also associated with the group. [1]
Equatorial Guinea
- Merz, who was one of those arrested in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, was suspected of being the conspirators' "transportation officer," his task being to supply them with a plane and an Armenian crew, and to look after the flight arrangements. Merz died about 10 days after his arrest; his body was flown to Germany and buried there. The official cause of death was malaria, but Von Paleske is convinced that Merz was murdered. He therefore asked the German authorities to perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death.[2]
Death
- Gerhard Eugen Merz died in custody at 9pm on 17 March 2004, about 10 days after his arrest. The Equatorial Guinean authorities announced that he had died in hospital of cerebral malaria. However, at the time Amnesty International received reports indicating that he had died as a result of torture. More details have emerged since his death, which seem to confirm those reports. The organization has publicly expressed concern about his death and reiterates its call for an investigation.[3]
Affiliations
Connections
References
- ↑ Death of a Mercenary and a Private Army, by Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 15 April 2005, via Corpwatch.
- ↑ Death of a Mercenary and a Private Army, by Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 15 April 2005, via Corpwatch.
- ↑ Equatorial Guinea - A trial with too many flaws, Amnesty International, accessed 12 April 2008
