U.S. DROPS CHARGES IN IRAN ARMS CASE
By ARNOLD H. LUBASCH
Published: January 5, 1989
Federal prosecutors dropped all charges yesterday in a 1986 indictment charging a London lawyer, a retired Israeli general and nine other men with plotting to sell more than $2 billion in American-made weapons to Iran.
All the defendants were free while awaiting trial. In addition to Mr. Evans, the defendants were Avraham Bar-Am, the retired Israeli general; Guriel Eisenberg, Rafael Israel Eisenberg, William Northrop, Nico Minardos, Alfred Flearmoy, Hermann Moll, Ralph Kopka, Hans Bihn and Isaac Hebroni. Lawyers said Guriel Eisenberg had died.
In the dismissal document, the prosecution noted that the indictment was filed May 5, 1986, adding that the grand jury heard ''substantial evidence'' to show that the defendants had conspired to divert American-made weapons to Iran.
''In November 1986, the fact that certain members of the National Security Council had secretly engaged in the sale of arms to Iran was disclosed publicly for the first time,'' it said. Key U.S. Witness Dies
The prosecutors investigated whether there was ''any connection between the Iran-contra affair and the arms transactions charged in this indictment,'' according to the dismissal document. It said, ''This investigation revealed no such connection.''
''Simultaneously, of course, an independent counsel obtained indictments of four of the principal players allegedly involved in the Iran arms sales sponsored by the National Security Council,'' it continued, referring to the pending Washington case involving Oliver L. North.
The document dismissing the Evans case said that in the summer of 1986, the Government's key witness, Cyrus Hashemi, died in England. Mr. Hashemi, an Iranian linked to the Iran-contra affair, had helped set up the sting operation that resulted in the Evans indictment.
Since Mr. Hashemi's death, the document said, the prosecution has tried unsuccessfully to obtain testimony from other witnesses to contradict the defendants' contention that they believed they were operating with Government approval.
''Without such testimony, the Government is forced to conclude that it is unable to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants did not believe that their planned arms sales to Iran were officially sanctioned or that approval of the United States for such sales could be obtained,'' the document said.
The document, signed by Mr. Giuliani and another prosecutor in the case, Robert Hammel, was formally accepted and signed by Judge Leonard B. Sand, who was scheduled to conduct the trial.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/05/world/us-drops-charges-in-iran-arms-case.html