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Two more WMD arrests in SA
08/09/2004 22:55 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Two people have been arrested under laws governing the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, the office of the national police commissioner said on Wednesday.
Spokesperson Sally de Beer said one man was arrested in Gauteng and the other in KwaZulu-Natal. Both would appear in court soon.
Due to the sensitive nature of the investigations, police would not release any further information on the arrests, said De Beer.
Earlier on Wednesday, charges against Johan Meyer for contravention of the same laws were withdrawn.
Meyer was arrested last Thursday on three charges under the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Energy acts.
After a brief court appearance on Friday, he returned to the court on Wednesday, but his application for bail was withdrawn without explanation by his legal team.
He was whisked away, supposedly to a prison until his next court appearance, but in a surprise second appearance later in the morning, charges against him were withdrawn.
NPA: Our lips are sealed
A court official said: "The State informed me that charges were being withdrawn. I was not given a reason," he said, adding that Meyer was now "a free man".
Meyer's attorney, Heinrich Badenhorst, said he could not comment on the withdrawal of the charges and Makhosini Nkosi, a spokesperson for the national prosecuting authority, said that, besides confirming the withdrawal, "our lips are sealed".
Meyer's charges were formulated under South Africa's Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act and the Nuclear Energy Act as part of an international investigation which includes the IAEA.
AQ Khan 'network'
In a statement on Tuesday, South Africa's Council for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons said the investigation was "in the context" of the AQ Khan "network"
Abdul Khan was a leading figure in Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, and was involved in the final test detonation of Pakistan's first nuclear bomb.
In 2001, he lost his position on the orders of President Pervez Musharraf, and has since reportedly claimed he was privately supplying components to produce nuclear weapons to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
Minty said the items confiscated did not "constitute a weapon of mass destruction, but they are essential components in the process to enrich uranium".
Meyer's attorney would also not comment on whether his client would be helping with the international investigation.
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