A Q Khan ‘aide’ held in Germany

[seemslikeadream]

CRAIG WHITLOCK AND SHANNON SMILEY

Posted online: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 at 0210 hours IST

BERLIN, OCTOBER 12: German prosecutors have arrested an engineer on suspicion that he helped Libya in its efforts to build a nuclear weapons program. Eight months ago Urs Tinner, 39, was named by authorities in Malaysia as a key figure in Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan’s network that spread nuclear secrets around the world.

The man was arrested last week in the central German state of Hesse, according to the German federal prosecutor’s office. Officials said Tinner was the member of a Swiss engineering family that has drawn scrutiny from European authorities and nonproliferation experts for more than two decades.

In February, Malaysian officials identified Tinner as a middleman in Khan’s network that supplied Libya with gas centrifuge parts that could be used in the enrichment of uranium. German prosecutors said in a statement that they were preparing to charge Tinner, a Swiss citizen, with conspiracy to commit treason.

Swiss export-control officials said that they recently completed an inquiry into the business activities of Tinner and his family, based on the allegations made in February by Malaysian police
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