Swiss urged to prosecute trio in Pakistan nuclear bomb case

Published on Thursday 23 December 2010 14:25

Smuggling charges should be brought against three Swiss engineers suspected of giving nuclear weapons technology to a rogue network in Pakistan, a magistrate said yesterday.

Investigating magistrate Andreas Mueller said his recommendation that the trio, two brothers and a father, face trial is based on an exhaustive probe.

Mr Mueller submitted his confidential report to federal prosecutors, who will decide whether to bring charges on violating Swiss non-proliferation laws.

Mr Mueller oversaw the last three years of a six-year federal probe against Urs Tinner, his brother Marco and their father Friedrich.

The politically sensitive case was slowed after the Swiss government repeatedly ordered evidence destroyed in the case, allegedly under pressure from senior US officials.

The Tinners are suspected of links to the nuclear smuggling network of Abdul Qadeer Khan - the creator of Pakistan's atomic bomb. They allegedly supplied Khan's black market network with the technical expertise and equipment used to make gas centrifuges.

Khan sold the centrifuges for secret nuclear weapons programmes in countries that included Libya and Iran before his operation was disrupted in 2003.

Mr Mueller strongly criticised the Swiss government for having "massively interfered in the wheels of justice by destroying almost all the evidence." He said the government ordered police not to co-operate with him.

"There are many parts. It's like a puzzle and if you put the puzzle together you get the whole picture," Mr Mueller said. "There is not (just] one piece of evidence, there are many pieces."