Two former Siemens executives to be tried for violating Russia sanctions in Germany

The court announced on Friday that a German court had decided to initiate a criminal case against two former Siemens executives who were accused of violating the sanctions by exporting Siemens gas turbines into Russian-occupied Crimea. Last year, prosecutors in Hamburg, Germany charged four Germans as well as a Swiss-French national with alleged sanctions violation.

In a press release, the Hamburg Regional Court announced that it would proceed with the trial of two of the defendants, and dropped the charges against the other three because the investigation found no sufficient grounds for prosecution.

In a court statement, it was stated that the prosecutor's department had appealed against the decision of the court to dismiss the charges against the three individuals. Hamburg prosecutors were not available for comment.

The German judiciary has not identified any of the individuals charged in this case. Siemens spokesperson said that the company cannot comment on ongoing court proceedings but stated that the case is not against Siemens and the individuals in question no longer work for Siemens.

Siemens Energy's spokesperson declined to comment, as the accused were not Siemens Energy employees. Siemens Energy spun off after the events in question and now owns Siemens' old turbines business.

Western companies cannot supply energy or power equipment to Crimea as a result of sanctions imposed by the European Union and U.S. in response to Russia annexing the peninsula in 2014, which was internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.

Siemens turbines, which generate electricity, were delivered to two power plants in Crimea that are being built by Moscow despite the sanctions.

Siemens stated at the time it had provided the turbines to an Russian customer in the hope that they would be installed into power plants in Russia and was unaware of any plans to send them to Crimea. (Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz. Mark Potter edited the article.

(source: Reuters)