SA man part of 'nuke network'

2004-09-03 18:01

Vanderbijlpark - A South African businessman was charged on Friday with nuclear trafficking as part of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's secret network helping Libya develop an atomic weapons programme.

Johan Meyer, 53, appeared in court in this town south of Johannesburg a day after his arrest on charges of being in possession of nuclear-related material and of illegally importing and exporting nuclear material.

"He was arrested on charges that he was building a nuclear weapon," said Meyer's lawyer Heinrich Badenhorst.

The United States applauded the move, saying in a statement issued by its embassy in Pretoria that South Africa was making "exceptional efforts to break the AQ Khan proliferation network".

The father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, confessed in February that he had shared nuclear secrets with Iran, Libya and North Korea, triggering an international effort to track down the scientist's accomplices.

"South Africa's government agencies worked long and hard with various partners to monitor sensitive materials that were integral to the AQ Khan network's efforts to supply Libya's clandestine nuclear programme," it said.

According to the charge sheet, Meyer is accused of acquiring material between November 2000 and November 2001 that "could have contributed to the design, development, manufacturing, deployment, maintenance and use of weapons of mass destruction."

It also states that Meyer had acquired equipment, material and plans for the design and use of gas centrifuges, used to enrich uranium, the key ingredient in nuclear bomb-making.

During the arrest on Thursday, investigators seized "items alleged to have been used" in the nuclear smuggling ring, a foreign ministry statement said.

Meyer, who lives in Pretoria and owns an engineering plant in the steel-works town of Vanderbijlpark, located some 80km south of Johannesburg, was remanded in police custody pending a bail hearing on September 8. He was not asked to enter a plea.

Investigators separately said the probe into violations of South Africa's law on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction was ongoing and did not rule out further arrests.

US supporting SA

The probe is looking into the possible involvement of other individuals and companies in the nuclear smuggling ring.

Spokesperson Sipho Ngwema for the national prosecuting authority said investigators were cooperating with international agencies and did not give details, but the US embassy praised the South African effort.

"We support South Africa in its determination to ensure that proliferators are punished to the fullest extent of the law," it said.

Intelligence is said to have worked closely with their US and Israeli counterparts in a year-long investigation into nuclear smuggling that led to Meyer's arrest.

US investigators traveled to Cape Town in February to probe allegations of an international nuclear smuggling network after a Cape Town businessman and former Israeli army officer, Asher Karni, was arrested in Denver, Colorado a month earlier.

Karni was charged with trying to smuggle 66 nuclear weapon detonators to Pakistan through his South African company, Top-Cape Technology.

- AFP