Fateful moment. Ill go and around 50 other students had commandeered public buses to get back to the college after a demonstration such actions arent unusual in parts of mexico. Suddenly police stop the bus and then open fire on the arm students hit by a bullet or fell to the ground. 6 students were shot dead 2 more were seriously wounded. 43 students all the aged between 18 and 23 were abducted theyve never been seen since just like thousands of others in mexico. A number of Police Officers were subsequently arrested accused of carrying out the murders. A number of the weapons used in those crimes were German Military grade 36 assault rifles from a 5 heckler and koch. But the German Government hadnt approved their export to this region. It all began in 2005 german arms manufacturer heckler and koch wanted to export thousands of g 36. 00 assault rifles to mexico along with submachine guns so the company submitted an application to the German Economics Ministry in berlin but the Foreign Ministry expressed concern citing Human Rights Violations by Mexican Security forces including abductions and murder and get it all and other states. The Economics Ministry sought a compromise. Meanwhile heckler cough was waiting impatiently for permission to export as the companys then Sales Representative from mexico explains we can only identify him as marcus b. And then come to be deformed or we were then asked by sounds whether we could change the designated and use it to figure it because someone in history had requested that certain aspects shouldnt be mentioned and as a. Heckler and koch had originally presented this and you certificate from the Mexican Defense ministry to the German Economics Ministry. The details of the certificate showed clearly that the weapons were partly intended for mexican states considered particularly dangerous. Email usually play for and so i wrote an email to my wife from the computer of. Ad. Asking or to ask the head of de camp the official body responsible for arms sales in mexico whether it was possible not to name these 3 states and to issue a new and use so once the Economics Ministry had informed heckler and koch which mexican states would not be approved the company submitted a new end you certificate where the critical states were no longer mentioned but the strange thing was the exact same number of guns would still be supplied to mexico which surely should have been noticed. But approval for the export was given and the deal began. Over the following years a team from headline coffee traveled all over mexico showing Police Officers in the army how to use the firearms. Here they arent colima but they also went to the states that were supposedly banned including get a table where the weapons would soon be used. On 19 year old a local jihadist solano for example. This was him dancing at his brothers wedding just days before Security Forces would destroy his life forever. Dont tell me it was a clever child really bright he was always keen to see everything and to learn thats why he went to college now last call. Details of that night hot the family. A lost brother lay on their tells us what happened. I knew there were a number of monsters and i was in the 1st one if tomorrow when the attack started it they were already heading back to the college with us the police started pursuing them then a Police Vehicle not long into the junction and to stop them leaving the city. Innocent so the students got out of the bars ill go it was one of the 1st to get out he wanted to talk to the police who were blocking the road in the hope that they could proceed the police immediately started shooting. But. When ill go was hit by a bullet the other screamed for help. They called an ambulance for their friend while running for cover themselves more shots fell. That same night all those family rushed to the hospital in one day your boss i saw him and he had a bullet wound to his head the bullet went in here and came out here. One of the heckler and koch instructors started to have doubts. In 2010 he testified to state prosecutors against his former employer cough he was a damning indictment of colleagues and managers. That led to 2 police raids on the Company Premises and a mammoth investigation. In 2018 the largest trial of its kind in german postwar history finally got underway trial observers took detailed minutes. Yarn fun aachen was one of them. He was previously a weapons inspector for the United Nations and a member of the german parliament. I remember 3 things from the 1st day firstly the charges were read out which included conspiring to commit crimes the 2nd was that the 2 main suspects werent in the room which one has since died and the other was hacked larry cox mexico representative who lives in mexico and was allegedly not well enough to travel. So his trial was separated off. With. The defendants included ex c. E. O. Peter biola and another former heckler and koch c. E. O. To past employees from the marketing division. The company heckler and koch itself as a codefendant and a secretary from the export department but a 3rd thing i remember was the initial statements given by the accused where it was totally clear they had no sense of guilt and they think they were really serious about that. The argument was they had received approval for exports to mexico and it was so they exported to mexico they couldnt work out why they were in court that. Would be and you certificate is the centerpiece of germanys arms control mechanism in this document the buyer declares where the weapons will be delivered and where they will be used ruling out that they will end up anywhere else several different ministries examine the application under the direction of the Economics Ministry. The governments export control office then takes care of the licensing procedure. Noida bought off was president of bof a for 10 years. Hes well acquainted with the procedures and knows those who worked in the Economics Ministry during the period in question. I thought of they had that id call a good as the in the heckler and koch case the colleague involved at the Economics Ministry and was not someone who exercised any particularly critical judgment in that regard shall we say so id point that. That official who was in a senior position in the Economics Ministry was one of the 1st witnesses to be called his testimony got off to an uncomfortable start. Thats all youre looking for art form for the witness was asked by the presiding judge to disclose what the mexico deal was all about he answered one moment and put a huge briefcase on the table guns and he pulled out an entire file therefore there was mounted in the the judge asked him what he was doing he said i need to find on the investigation to get the indictment theyre going to start and large after theyre going you can see the faces of the state prosecutors turning red because thats not a lot of it is and as i said a witness in a German Criminal Court case of his holding the indictment in his hands the until recently in. But that wasnt the end of it during questioning the witness revealed that the other ministries also had access to the confidential files. But where they came from that bit he could remember. He actually stated in court we call the ministry for the economy we have special interest in ensuring that these manufacturers can survive economically thats from the man responsible for regulating organs exports for. Thats true but the export guidelines state that when it comes to arms exports are economic considerations and jobs are not to play around with the kind of whats the legal position and have the court is familiar with the export i cancel it. Back to the courtroom under further questioning by the presiding judge the official from the economics minister stated from the witness stand that human rights were more a work of endeavor human rights as a work of endeavor. Thats not with the approval guidelines set up by the government state. That they dont do that with descendants but this question of the human rights situation in the recipient country plays a prominent role of the elite also coming from a legal background its clear that its an absolute test criterion and a deal breaking criteria. And indeed the official from the Economics Ministry admitted himself while testifying to the Customs Investigation Bureau that he realized the firearms had only been excluded from parts of mexico on paper. But the Economics Ministry denies any wrongdoing. The ministrys main contact that heckler and koch was paid to biota he was in the dock it struck god but he was acquitted. Well day 2 of the trial peter buyer list stated that these and you certificates are and i quote the wrong instruments oh and in effect of me give our gift. This supposedly wrong instrument has for decades been the basis for all of germanys arms exports. Peter by other had been the head judge at the District Court before moving to heckler and koch initially he was the companys Liaison Officer for the authorities and then later c. E. O. Throughout he was responsible for export applications and end use agreements the export control office buffer also understands that the end use agreement is a binding document in fights not done wait for shooting to our understanding of the law and use it difficult is it an integra part of the licensing. Yet veteran legal expert peter buy of the argued in court that end you certificates are not decisive for arms exports and he claimed to know nothing of the reworked certificate from mexico. But his correspondence with the chummy official at the Economics Ministry tells a different story. As i was the mayor of this email before its completely clear here the Economics Ministry is telling heckler and koch you cant export to these mexican states but these are the ones are ok and yet in the trial all those involved maintained repeatedly that there had never been a list of positive and negative states its absurd that this is only turned up now. But thats not all. When the approval of arms exports to mexico did not appear forthcoming by a lot email colleagues suggesting they pursued what he called the political route. The company made donations to the constituency offices of influential politicians. We tried to speak to peter by a lawyer to with the emerge from the court one day. His lawyer decreased reading fed blocked our cameramen pulling out the sound cable. Peter biola began brandishing his briefcase and his lawyer continued to attempt to obstruct us. Mr dialo what do you know about the Party Donations about heckling cos. They were clearly not willing to talk about donations to politicians. Mexico has never forgotten the missing student teachers. For more than 5 years thousands of people have been taking to the streets every month to demand answers. They include families and friends of the 43. 00 students who disappeared. Even travelling in the crisis 20 state of get it always dangerous. Civilian militia groups have taken control of the roads and levy socalled customs duties. Are at the mercy of the local commanders. One of them. When they spot our camera things get a bit edgy. Get always been scarred by the drug war by violence and corruption. The good to get his family is taken care of although in this house built with donations. Can you tell the history of. His sons closely. Sometimes he opens his eyes we talk to him and then he closes. That we take care of the a little bit every day we come here and we take care of him. On day and all night we take care of him and yes he can hear and he responds to. Meanwhile the trial in stuttgart was continuing evidence was presented in the court called dozens of witnesses. Then on the 20th day something completely unexpected happened. And suddenly the number was clear 15000 emails had slipped through that created a bit of a shock up there on the bench they realized they suddenly had a lot of documents here that hadnt been included in the proceedings until. An investigation was launched into the missing emails where were they then the name of an Auditing Company came up k p m g. Then it turns out the Customs Criminal Investigation Office leading the investigation had received the emails that the documents for key p. M. G. Party had already been filtered and sorted. Heckler and koch called in k p m g shortly after police searched its headquarters. Part of their task was to evaluate the steps Electronic Communications marcos being with the company Sales Representative in mexico. And asked kay p. M. G. To carry out an internal voluntary investigation i read you in comprehensible right its enough for the prosecutor to investigate the police and so on and so vital. P. M. G. As one of the worlds 4 largest auditing companies. The internal investigation was supposed to support the Customs Criminal Investigation Office and rittenberg state criminal Police Office and the Public Prosecutors Office. Why did the authorities agree to cooperate with k. P. N. Ji in the 1st place how close was that cooperation. With the k p m g report confirms the cooperation with the Police Customs investigators and the Prosecutors Office. The customs investigators say they exchanged information with k. P. N. Ji for 3 years. Voice still represents mark wispy and is critical of the fact that the state investigators had agreed to cooperate with the private auditors. And. This is the reason i believe that we also have these socalled pawns in the dock we do not have the people actually responsible for the whole story for initiating it and i dont. Those people are probably more likely to be found in departments of the federal ministry of economics the people at the top of eglinton call perhaps of the federal ministry. The k p m g investigation said there were significant irregularities in the stories of the secretary a marketing employee and the representative in mexico and said they were primarily responsible for the crooked arms deals there. The court in strict guard has refused to comment on the proceedings of the ruling. An answer to a written request the Chicago PublicProsecutors Office said the cooperation with k. P. M. G. Had been helpful. But it also points out the k. P. N. G. s findings had also been compared with the information gathered by the office and critically assessed. In september 2018 accompanied by his lawyers brother there were no trouble to strip got for the trial. The court had already rejected the familys request to appear as joint plaintiff in the criminal proceedings. In the courts opinion the allegedly legal deliveries did not contribute to the concrete acts of injury in question. In the courtroom they are now took 2 photos of his brother out of his backpack because as he later said aldo could not attend the trial himself. The court reacted swiftly. 9 Court Officers surrounded the guest from mexico until he gave them the pictures of his brother although. It was all about equipment up there it was all about files and stuff no one ever talked about the victims and i think its important in this whole discussion about arms exports not only the trial to make that clear from time to time and this is about if this is about blood this is about war and not just about sewing machines and refrigerators and that is why this is a very very special moment for me only when left the courthouse to get the pictures of his brother back. In february 2019 the court gave its verdict. The secretary received a 17 month suspended sentence and had to perform 250 hours of community service. A former marketing employee was sentenced to 22 months on probation and had to pay an 80000. 00 euro find a social organizations. Heckler and koch was fined 3700000 euros approximately the Contract Value of the illegally exported weapons. The other defendants including the 2 former c. E. O. s were acquitted. Both heckler and koch and peta biota have refused to give any interviews but deny any wrongdoing. By the Public Prosecutors Office decided not to appeal against the acquittal of by a lawyer and the other ex c. E. O. While appealing the other rulings we are convinced said the presiding judge in its oral verdict that neither and you certificate as such nor the actual end use can be made a part of the permit in terms of Administrative Law but the former head of buffa the governments export control office doesnt agree. As minister to have law it is quite clear that i om part of it. If i may put it cautiously criminal lawyers who do not deal with these things so often may see things differently. And that was probably sent in the stuttgart ruling and she didnt. 2 months after the stuttgart ruling a court in kiel came to a different conclusion than the court in southern germany. At the trial of the german arms manufacturers exult for illegal arms exports and you certificates were judged to be part of the export licenses. Zigzag had sold 37000. 00 pistols to colombia although the end you certificate said they were destined for the usa. X. Managers of zigzag germany and the c. E. O. Of its us affiliate were given fines and sus