Elbit Employee Dies In Mysterious Circumstances In Saudi Arabia

An employee of Israel’s Elbit defense technology company has died in suspicious circumstances while working on assignment in Saudi Arabia, Globes reports.

Saudi authorities in Tabuk said that Chris Cramer, of Kollsman Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Elbit Systems, committed suicide, falling from his hotel window on the third floor of the Sahara Makarim Hotel.

However, family and friends in the U.S. are charging that he was murdered in the midst of a complicated arms deal, according to Fox News.

Family attorney and longtime friend of the victim Noah Mandell said that “the problem was with the customer. The missile system was already sold to the Saudi company and they were complaining that it wasn’t working. He was basically sent to see if he could prove that they were firing it incorrectly.”

Mandell also said he believes that the Tow Missile system was sabotaged before Cramer arrived with a colleague in Saudi Arabia on Jan. 8. “When Chris showed up everything was inoperable,” he said.

Elbit Systems issued a statement saying, “We received notification from Kollsman that a company employee Chris Cramer died during a work trip. The circumstances of his death are being checked out by the U.S. State Department. We do not have any further details at this stage and we are waiting for the State Department to update our U.S. subsidiary. Cramer worked for the company for 12 years. We cannot provide details about the project on which he was working, but we are talking about a longstanding Kollsman product that does not have any Israeli technology.”

This article appeared in print on page 7 of the February 2nd, 2015 edition of Hamodia.