Noose tightens round alleged network of international nuclear black marketeers
September 10, 2004 Edition 1
Graeme Hosken
Pretoria: The noose is beginning to tighten around a nuclear black market network as international law enforcement authorities close in on scores of engineers and scientists suspected of being involved in the illegal sale of nuclear materials.
Hours before Wednesday's arrest of Gauteng engineer businessmen Gerhard Wisser, 65, and Daniel Geiges, 66, police in the US, Germany, UK, Libya and Pakistan swooped on several businesses, seizing hundreds of documents and computers, in their countries.
The confiscated items are believed to contain vital information about the nuclear black market network allegedly run by Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan.
The network is believed to be responsible for supplying materials used in the illegal manufacturing of nuclear devices, including weapons, by rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea.
The arrests of Wisser and Geiges, the fifth and sixth South African engineers to have been taken into custody by investigators, came less than 24 hours after police withdrew charges against Pretoria engineer Johan Meyer.
It is the second time in less than a month that Wisser, managing director of Kisch Engineering in Randburg, has been arrested in connection with the investigation into the network.
He was arrested last month in Germany for his alleged role as the middleman in the sale of nuclear equipment between a South African engineering company and an African nuclear facility.
Geiges also works for KischEngineering. Meyer, who was arrested on September 2, was charged with contravening the South African Nuclear Energy Act and the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Treaty.
Neither the National Prosecuting Authority nor the South African Police Service would comment on why the charges were withdrawn.
Meyer's lawyer, Heinrich Badenhorst, refused to return any telephone calls made to find out why all charges were withdrawn against Meyer. It is thought that Badenhorst has been instructed by state lawyers not to talk to the media.
It is also believed that Meyer has turned state witness in return for immunity from prosecution.
Part of the deal with the state is thought to be that he is to provide information on all South Africans and South African businesses involved in the nuclear black market network.
Hours after his release on Wednesday, detectives swooped on Wisser's luxury Durban beachfront flat and the Johannesburg home of Geiges.
The two, who appeared in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate's Court yesterday, are facing four counts relating to the contravention of the Nuclear Energy Act and the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act.
Sources close to the investigation said police, who are working closely with the NIA and the International Atomic Energy Agency, were examining dozens of computer file systems seized from Wisser and Geiges.
It is believed that the systems contain information on the purchasing and sale of nuclear materials such as gas centrifuges. Gas centrifuges are used in the enrichment of uranium which can be used in nuclear weapons.
An intelligence agent confirmed authorities were sifting through hundreds of files seized from the men's residences.
Wisser's lawyer, Claudia Privato, confirmed her client was facing similar charges in South Africa to those he appeared for in a German court.
She said Wisser was currently out on bail in connection with the charges in Germany. Geiges's lawyer, Kevin Cross, was unavailable for comment.
National police spokeswoman, Director Sally de Beer, said both men were being held at the Moot Police Station here, "as this is close to where the investigators are stationed".
