A HONG Kong arms trading company which played a key role in a multi-billion-dollar illegal weapons deal with Iran has taken that country's national bank to the House of Lords in London for non-payment of almost US$7 million (HK$54.6 million) of the contract.
The bizarre twist to a complex international trail is the latest step in a saga which started seven years ago with the supply of weapons to Iran at the height of its war with Iraq.
The company, Seaconsar Far East Ltd, was implicated in the US$193 million operation to ship artillery shells to the Iranian Ministry of Defence during a recent court case in Italy, which resulted in 15 senior executives being jailed.
The trial was the result of a five-year investigation into the arms cartel, involving up to five major European weapons producers companies including the French giant, Luchaire.
The Venice Court was told Seaconsar Far East, a ''shelf'' or ''paper'' company, believed to be run by a Swiss-based lawyer, Guillaume de Lalene, and a subsidiary of Luchaire, was responsible for the arms exporters' Far East affairs.
Three of those imprisoned were directors of Luchaire, including Mario Appiano, who confirmed the Hong Kong link by telling prosecutors he used a proxy drawn up by the Hong Kong Supreme Court on behalf of Seaconsar Far East to sign a contract with the Iranians.
Appiano came to Hong Kong on six occasions in the mid-1980s to conduct business on behalf of Seaconsar with the local branch of the Italian state-owned Banca Nazionale del Lavoros.