WMD linked to SA men
2005-02-27 08:17
Makhudu Sefara
Johannesburg - Two foreign nationals with permanent South African residency status have been implicated in the manufacture of products meant to enrich uranium - and facilitate its supply to Libya.
In an indictment presented to Daniel Geiges, a Swiss citizen, and Gerhard Wisser, a German citizen, the state reveals for the first time details of:
the links between the two men;
other South Africans associated with the Nuclear Energy Corporation of SA (Necsa);
the link to the Abdul Qadeer Khan network that clandestinely provided uranium enrichment products to Tripoli.
Geiges, a director of Krisch Engineering and Wisser, an MD of Krisch Engineering, were indicted in the Vanderbijlpark magistrates' court on Friday and their case was postponed to April 22 in the Pretoria High Court, according to Makhosini Nkosi, spokeperson for the national prosecuting authority (NPA).
The two are former business associates of Johan Meyer, arrested earlier at his Tradefin company in Vereeniging following the seizure of ship containers with a centrifuge enrichment plant and other equipment used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
The indictment indicates the duo were charged with contravention of the Riotous Assemblies Act - read with the Weapons of Mass Destruction Act.
Geiges also faces a fraud charge in that between December 8 and 11 2001 he, "unlawfully and with an intent to defraud", provided an invoice to Schalk van Heerden of the firm Rohlig Grindrod for the import of a flow-forming machine "misrepresented" as a lathe machine.
The machine was reported to be valued at $23 500 (about R141 000) when it was in fact $257 680 and required written permission to import from the minerals and energy minister.
In documents before the court, Krisch Engineering is presented as a supplier of equipment to the now abandoned SA Nuclear Programme.
The documents show that the arrest of the two men could be traced to developments in October 2003 when a German ship, the BBC China, was intercepted in an Italian port en route from Dubai to Libya, carrying parts of an enrichment plant.
Libya then admitted involvement and co-operated with the International Atomic Energy Agency - which exposed Pakistani "nuclear hero" Abdul Qadeer Khan to have also worked with other countries for personal gain.
His worldwide network of suppliers included people in South Africa, according to the indictment.
When Libya handed over parts of its "production of internationally proscribed weapons" to the US, these included "the flow forming machine".
Malaysian police released a report that said Gotthard Lerch, a German engineer, attempted to obtain pipes from South Africa.
But the indictment alleges that Wisser and Meyer met Lerch in Dubai on April 21 and 22 2001 - after which meeting Meyer opened a Swiss bank account used for transactions related to the programme.
- City Press