No big news today, so it’s time for another Export Law Blog grab bag:

• A Swiss court convicted an un-named Czech man for exporting missile-related electronic components to Iran. The man claimed he thought the components were harmless. The court really threw the book at him and fined him 5,000 Swiss francs ($4,440) and ordered 26,500 Swiss francs in profits seized. Apparently export violations in Switzerland are only slightly more serious than speeding tickets.
• A woman that was convicted in October of exporting mobile phone equipment to Iraq right before the U.S. invasion was sentenced yesterday to 6 years in prison and order to pay a $1.1 million dollar forfeiture. The prosecution had asked for a sentence at the low end of federal sentencing guidelines, which they calculated to be around 20 years in prison. Even though the judge gave a much lower sentence, I’m sure she still wished she had been tried in Switzerland.
• Russia earns the good citizen award for passing a law lowering the number of weapons subject to export control. The new law removes export controls from revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, submachine guns, automatic rifles, light machine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, anti-tank guns, and mortars with a caliber of less than 100 mm.

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