As I stated in my reference to the third charge, I am very doubtful whether a person named Karim Bekir was involved in the transactions that are the subject of the indictment, and the same is true of the Mand-Electric Company.
It should be noted that in the letter of the supplier in the third charge, Rasco of Hong Kong (P/35A), the name in the wall is mentioned, which supposedly represents the ICC from the Palestinian Authority, and in that letter the telephone numbers that were in the possession of Defendant 1, and this I have already referred to in my remarks regarding the third charge.
It should also be noted that defendant 1 did not mention Karim Bakir or the Mand-Electric company in his statement (P/321), and did not mention any connection to the Palestinian Authority, when the plans and criminal acts were attributed, as stated, to Elhanan Tenenbaum.
In summary, I hold that there was no involvement of a person named Karim Bekir or of Mand-Electric in the transactions in question in Charges 9-14, with the entire responsibility resting on the shoulders of Defendant 1.
Another company mentioned in this group of charges is MRLD. It is agreed that no import registrations were submitted in the name of this company, no tax invoices were issued, and there was no movement of funds in the company's account. However, MRLD's name was mentioned in the credit letters in Charge 1 as informed, and in Charges 2 and 9 as routine. There is no dispute that this company did not file income tax reports and did not even pay taxes.
In his statement (P/321), defendant 1 stated that he had handled documentary credit for imports made by MRLD at the request of Yosef Heller, who is one of the company's shareholders. Uri Resch claimed that there was a mediation between Heller and Elhanan Tenenbaum, and according to him, the deal was executed and the goods were released by Schloss. A reference to MRLD also appears in the statement of defendant 1 (P/302), where he claimed that he served as a guarantor for a person named Yosef Heller, who is the owner of MRLD.