Police sent papers to prosecutors accusing a former Iranian ambassador to Japan and a former embassy staff member of being directly involved in illegal weapons exports to Iran, Metropolitan Police Department officials said.

But because of the ambassador's diplomatic immunity against arrest or indictment, prosecutors are not expected to file any charges against the former envoy. It is extremely rare for Japanese police to take criminal action against a diplomat who has served as an ambassador to Japan.

The police officials said Friday that the former envoy, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, and an unidentified embassy worker who once belonged to the embassy's accounting section are suspected of transferring 6.1 million yen in March 1994 into the bank account of Sun Beam K.K., a small trading company in Tokyo that allegedly shipped the parts.

They were aware the money was being used for illegal exports because their signatures were on a check made out to Sun Beam, according to the police.

Ardebili returned to Iran after serving as ambassador to Japan from March 1990 to December 1994. Currently, he reportedly serves as adviser to Iran's Oil Ministry and represents Iran at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The staffer went back to Iran in May 1995. More than five years have passed since the money was transferred, but the statute of limitations on the case has not run out because the suspects have departed from Japan.

The parts in question were dials used in the sighting devices of antitank rocket-launchers. They were allegedly shipped to Iran on at least three occasions following the money transfer.

Ichiro Takahashi, 63, and Tsuneo Ishida, 67, who ran Sun Beam, pleaded guilty March 14 to charges of sending the parts to Iran. The company went bankrupt in 1998.

Ardebili, 47, and the other man, 49, are accused of conspiring with the trading company employees in violation of Japanese restrictions on arms exports under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law.

The police said they decided to send the papers to prosecutors after the Iranian Embassy refused to cooperate in the investigation, citing the suspects' diplomatic immunity.

After the MPD's action against Ardebili, the Iranian Embassy in Tokyo reiterated its denial of any involvement in the illegal weapons trade.

The embassy said: "There is no truth that anyone intervened in trade activities. We hope that actions that would cause damage in the relationship between our countries will be stopped promptly."

Takahashi and Ishida, currently on trial, were accused of shipping about 3.5 million yen worth of the dials to Iran in 1995 after receiving orders from an Iranian state-run enterprise identified as Iran Electronics Industries.

The shipments were allegedly made without the necessary permission of the international trade and industry minister.

Japan restricts military-related exports to Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea under a policy on arms exports adopted in 1967.

The policy requires the trade minister's permission for military-related exports to communist states, countries involved in international conflicts and nations under U.N. arms embargoes.