MADRID: Spain’s top criminal court said Friday it had opened an investigation for alleged complicity in crimes against humanity or genocide into executives at the steelmaker Sidenor for trading with an Israeli arms company.
Spain, one of the fiercest critics of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, said it had stopped exchanging weapons with the country after the conflict started with the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
The embargo formally became law this month as part of measures aiming to stop what Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calls a “genocide” in the devastated Palestinian territory.
Sidenor’s chairman Jose Antonio Jainaga and two other executives are being investigated for alleged smuggling and complicity in crimes against humanity or genocide for selling steel to Israel Military Industries, the Audiencia Nacional court said.
The Spanish firm sold the metal without requesting the government’s permission or registering the transaction, and knew the material “was going to be used for the manufacturing of weapons,” the court said in a statement.
