Nigerian court charges Iranian over arms cache

ABUJA — A Nigerian court on Thursday charged an Iranian and three Nigerians over an illegal arms shipment including rockets and mortars discovered at the West African country's main port and sent from Iran.

The Iranian, Azim Aghajani, was identified in court papers as a businessman and "member of IRGC" with an address in Tehran.

IRGC is an abbreviation for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military and economic force in Iran. Officials could not be reached to comment on the reference.

Iran has said the arms were being shipped by a private company.

The three Nigerians charged over the shipment denied the allegations, while Aghajani was allowed to delay entering a plea because his lawyer was not with him in court. All were ordered held in custody.

"The accused persons should be remanded in (intelligence agency) custody pending the conclusion of the investigation, and the accused persons should be allowed access to their lawyers while in custody," Magistrate Hafsat Sadiq Soso said.

Court documents alleged Aghajani "conspired to import and did import 13 20-feet containers loaded with assorted calibres of prohibited firearms ..." along with one of the Nigerian suspects.

They also alleged he sought to export the containers along with the three Nigerian suspects.

Nigerian agents seized the weapons at the port in Lagos last month. The containers had been loaded at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

The shipper later sought to have the containers reloaded and sent to Gambia, a tiny West African country wedged inside Senegal.

Nigeria has reported the seizure to the UN Security Council, with Iran under four sets of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear programme. The sanctions include a ban on arms sales.

Nigeria's Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia has said a diplomat may have also been linked to the shipment, but authorities could not question him because he had diplomatic immunity that the Iran government had not agreed to waive.

Seized weapons: Iran recalls ambassador •Says we’ve resolved ‘misunderstanding’ with Nigeria •Nigeria calls off football friendly with Iran

IRAN’S Foreign Minister said, on Monday, that the issue of an alleged Iranian arms shipment intercepted in Nigeria was a “misunderstanding” that had been settled.

This is just as the country’s ambassador to Nigeria, Hussein Abdullahi, has been recalled with a replacement named in his position.

Nigeria said the artillery rockets and other weapons, found at a Lagos port last month in shipping containers labelled as building supplies, originated in Iran and may have been destined for Nigerian politicians intending violence if they lose in upcoming elections. Nigeria said last week it would take action against Iran if an investigation shows it violated international law and United Nations sanctions, suggesting it might report Tehran to the world body.

Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said an Iranian implicated in the case had explained the situation to Nigerian authorities. “I think the misunderstandings have been settled in this field,” Mottaki said, according to the state news agency IRNA.

Mottaki, who visited Lagos last week, also said he had replaced Iran’s ambassador to Nigeria. Mottaki did not say whether the replacement was connected to the weapons case.

A spokesman for Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry said the new ambassador’s appointment had no connection with the arms seizure. The spokesman, Ozo Nwobu, declined to comment on Iran’s assertion that the issue was the result of a misunderstanding and that it had been resolved.

“Investigations are ongoing to determine the level of Iranian involvement and it will be inappropriate for us to comment before allowing them to be concluded,” Nwobu said.

In Iran, Mottaki did not elaborate on the nature of the misunderstanding or how it was resolved. His statement was the highest-level Iranian comment so far on the case. In late October, Iran’s then-ambassador to Nigeria, Hussein Abdullahi, said there was no clear evidence linking his country to the shipment.

In a sign that tensions continued between the two countries, Nigeria postponed a soccer match against Iran’s national team scheduled for Wednesday in Tehran.

Musa Amadu, the Nigeria Football Federation’s acting secretary general, told The Associated Press on Monday that the match was postponed “due to the non-availability of our key players.” But he didn’t a deny a connection with the political events, saying “it’s for you to speculate.”

An international shipping company based in France, CMA CGM, said it had picked up the containers in which the weapons were hidden in the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. The shipment stopped in Mumbai, India, before heading to Lagos. On Friday, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia said Iranian officials confirmed the consignment originated in Iran.

During his visit, Mottaki cleared the way for Nigerian security officials to interview one of two Iranians who Nigeria says organised the shipment, Ajumogobia said. The Nigerians say the two have taken refuge in the Iranian Embassy.

The interception of the weapons had drawn sharp criticism of Iran from Nigeria. In a 2007 resolution stepping up sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, the U.N. Security Council banned Iranian arms exports, forbidding the sale or supply of weapons by Iran, whether directly or indirectly. It requires nations to prevent any such transfers and prevent their citizens from obtaining any weapons from Iran.

But Mottaki, on Monday, depicted the tensions as eased. He said he and the Nigerian foreign minister had held talks on bilateral relations and that Ajumogobia would visit Tehran. Mottaki said the appointment of a new ambassador to Nigeria would “create new opportunities for cooperation between the two countries.”