Another WMD arrest in SA
2004-09-26 20:19
Geneva - A Swiss engineer suspected of selling nuclear equipment to Libya has been arrested in South Africa, the Swiss authorities said on Sunday, confirming a media report.
The foreign ministry said that a man bearing dual Swiss-South African nationality had been arrested in Cape Town.
The German paper SonntagsZeitung reported earlier that the man, who was not named, had been accused of importing and exporting equipment for enriching uranium, a stage in the development of nuclear weapons.
The man's superior in the establishment where he works, a German national, is also suspected of illegal possession and production of nuclear material, the paper said.
The two men are believed to have received more than a $1m from a client believed to be Libya, it said.
It was not known whether the arrests were linked to police raids last Tuesday on two Swiss-based companies relating to a German probe into illegal exports of nuclear technology.
Also on Tuesday, German officials said they had arrested a German businessman, named as Helmut R, suspected of illegal exports of nuclear technology.
List of 15 suspects
Last February the International Atomic Energy Association handed Switzerland a list of 15 names of people suspected of taking part in secret Iranian and Libyan nuclear programmes.
The names included three Swiss and one German national resident in Switzerland.
South Africa is currently investigating ties with a nuclear smuggling network thought to be linked to Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan who admitted in February to helping Libya and other nations develop their weapons programme.
On September 9 two German men living permanently in South Africa were charged by a South African court with illegally exporting equipment to enrich uranium.
Gerhard Wisser, 66, and Daniel Geiges, 65, were charged on four counts of contravening the Nuclear Energy Act and a law banning the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Libya announced late last year that it was abandoning attempts to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons after months of secret negotiations with London and Washington.