Agence France Presse – Four Japanese executives on Tuesday admitted illegally exporting equipment that can be used to build nuclear weapons and wound up in Libya and possibly Iran, a report said.
On the first day of their trial at the Tokyo District Court, the top officers of major precision equipment maker Mitutoyo said they did not obtain necessary authorization to export the devices to Malaysia.
Kazusaku Tezuka, 67, the former president of Mitutoyo, and three other executives admitted charges in the indictment, with each saying in the courtroom, "What is written is true," as quoted by Jiji Press.
Tezuka and three others — vice chairman Norio Takatsuji, executive director Hideyo Chikugo and Mitutoyo factory chief Tetsuo Kimura — violated the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law, the prosecutors have said.
They exported to Malaysia, via Singapore, two three-dimensional gauge devices that can be used in the production of nuclear weapons.
The export of such devices requires authorization by the Japanese ministry for economy and trade because of their potential military application.
One of the gauges is believed to have ended up in Libya and was found by inspectors from the UN nuclear agency after the former pariah state in 2003 renounced its program to build weapons of mass destruction.
Japanese police reportedly suspect that Mitutoyo also illegally exported devices to Iran through an Iranian trading company with offices in Tokyo.