World : Libya Chemical Plant Supplier Held

FRANKFURT, West Germany — Authorities today arrested the former head of a West German company at the center of a scandal involving a suspected chemical weapons plant in Libya.

West German and U.S. authorities alleged that the company, Imhausen-Chemie, was the key supplier of material for the plant in the Libyan city of Rabta. Libya claimed that the plant was for making pharmaceuticals, but U.S. and West German officials claim that it was intended to manufacture chemical weapons.

Juergen Hippenstiel-Imhausen, who was chief of Imhausen-Chemie until March, was arrested in the city of Bochum, said prosecutor Holger Preisendanz, who is leading the probe into the case. Hippenstiel-Imhausen is “strongly suspected” of violating West German export laws, Preisendanz said. Authorities were concerned that Hippenstiel-Imhausen may have been preparing to flee West Germany.