No charges against businessman Fryckman and Iraqi architect over arms export affair

Peter Fryckman

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Shortly before the beginning of the war in Iraq in 2003, news broke in Finland about a case in which the National Bureau of Investigation suspected that military equipment had been sent from Finland to Iraq in violation of an international embargo. Three men were under suspicion.
      Prosecutors have now decided that no charges will be brought in the case. State Prosecutor Ari-Pekka Koivisto nevertheless feels that there were sufficient grounds for an investigation.
     
One of the suspects was Finnish businessman Peter Fryckman, who is currently serving time in prison for financial crimes. He is believed to have had a small role in a project aimed at delivering war materiel to Iraq.
      Fryckman denied any knowledge of the issue, but Koivisto maintains that he was aware that the intended destination was Iraq. Nevertheless, Koivisto also says that it was not sufficiently demonstrated that the business activities of the three had established a concrete danger that weapons would actually be sold to Iraq, or that an actual attempt had been made.
      The equipment in question was to have included radar systems, laser-operated distance measuring devices, a heat-seeking camera, and spare parts for Russian-built T-72 tanks.
     
According to the prosecutors, a lawyer in Baghdad asked his brother, an architect living in Finland, for offers for the equipment. The brother, who was later detained in Helsinki for a couple of weeks, sent Fryckman information about the radar systems in the spring of 2002.
      Next, a South African acquaintance of Fryckman's informed the architect that the equipment was available from the South African armaments industry. Fryckman was also asked about "spare parts for a Russian vehicle - type 72".
      Koivisto says that the correspondence had an air of urgency, as it took place at a time when Iraq lived in fear of the upcoming war with the United States.
      The architect said in his message that the equipment was meant for Syria. However, Koivisto says that the real destination was to have been Iraq; there had been an e-mail message in which the architect cited "self-evident reasons" why no final user certificate would be forthcoming.
      Koivisto says that it is unlikely that Syria, which has been buying its weapons from Russia and the Soviet Union for decades, would suddenly start dealing with amateurs.
     
Fryckman also forwarded requests for tenders to a Russian man who had contacts in that country's arms market. During interrogation he did not remember or understand what the Kolchuga and Vera systems mentioned in the letters referred to.
      In one telling letter that was sent by the architect to his brother after meeting the Russian, the architect says that he can deliver radar systems at a price of 7.5 million US dollars apiece, and that he knows where the pumps of the vehicles are coming from, "but some people have to be paid".
      The men were spared criminal charges because no serious offers were sent. The matter was limited to discussions and intent. In addition, the statute of limitations had passed on some of the suspected crimes.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish Police investigate possible arms exports to Iraq (22.1.2003)
  South African police reject Fryckman arms deal allegations (15.1.2003)
  South African daily: arms deal papers found at Peter Fryckman's home (14.1.2003)
  Finnish businessman Peter Fryckman arrested in South Africa (25.11.2002)

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