Belgian companies prosecuted over allegedly exporting chemicals to Syria

Three Belgian companies will appear before court in May for allegedly exporting chemicals to Syria, an official source revealed yesterday.

The Belgian chemical exports were reported to have contained isopropanol of 95 per cent or more, a substance that could be used in the production of sarin gas

The Belgian customs recently filed a complaint to the country’s judiciary accusing three small and medium-sized companies — Danmar Logistics, AAE Chemie and the now-defunct Anex Customs —  of exporting chemical substances to Syria and Lebanon without acquiring the necessary permits.

The Belgian Finance Minister, Johan Van Overtveldt, said that the case against the companies is to come to court on 15 May “for opening proceedings in the port city of Antwerp and centres on whether and how illegal products were exported between 2014 and 2016 despite the sanctions against the regime of President Bashar Assad.”

Read: Arab summit calls for probe into Syria chemical attacks

Western countries have been accusing Assad of using chemical weapons against the Syrian population, most recently in the town of Douma on 7 April. The Syrian government denies the accusations.

A spokesman for the Belgian federal authorities was quoted by The Guardian as saying that the “customs [authority] have established infringements of the law concerning the import, export and transit of goods. The established facts were the subject of a criminal customs investigation and the prosecution was initiated at the end of March at the criminal court.”

The spokesman added that they had no reason to believe the chemicals in question had been used in the production of weapons.