ISRAELI BUSINESSMAN FOUND GUILTY OF TREASON

ISRAEL LINE THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1998

  Nachum Manbar, an Israeli businessman, was convicted on Wednesday of
treason for illegally selling chemical weapons components and know-how to
Iran for $16 million, HA'ARETZ reported.  Manbar could receive life in
prison when he is sentenced on July 15.
  "Nachum Manbar... sacrificed the security and well-being of the state on
the altar of his unchecked avarice," wrote Tel Aviv District Court Judge
Amnon Strasnov in the verdict.
  Manbar was found guilty of three offenses:  aiding the enemy in its war
against Israel, attempting to aid the enemy in its war against Israel, and
passing know-how to the enemy in order to harm state security.  The maximum
sentence for each of these crimes is life imprisonment.
  The prosecution claimed that between 1990 and 1994, Manbar supplied the
Iranians with tons of raw materials and equipment for the production of
mustard gas and nerve gas.  These materials were transported from Europe to
Iran in 24 truckloads.
  Israel and Iran have been in a technical state of war since Iran's Islamic
revolution in 1979.  In recent years, Israel has expressed increasing alarm
at Iran's drive for both nuclear weapons and missiles capable of reaching
Israel.