On 3rd June, the Brussel Times picked up on the story involving BASF in Belgium. It reports that 3 international NGO have filed criminal complaints against Belgium’s largest chemical manufacturer in a probe intended to clarify the company’s role in the 2014 shipping to Syria of chemical components found in toxic agents used as weapons by the Syrian regime. They allege that BASF Antwerpen NV and German companies, Sasol Germany GmbH and Brenntag AG, bypassed EU sanctions on the shipment of certain chemicals to Syria, with unauthorised shipments of isopropanol and diethylamine to Syria via Switzerland in 2014. The chemicals, which can be used to manufacture pharmaceuticals as well as toxic chemical agents, are listed in an EU list of “dual-use” materials requiring prior approval for their direct or indirect shipment to Syria.
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