Pakistan scientist denies selling nuke blueprint
Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan on Tuesday denied selling blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon to Iran or North Korea.
Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan on Tuesday denied selling blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon to Iran or North Korea.
The trial of the Swiss design engineer Daniel Geiges, who was allegedly part of an international nuclear smuggling ring, was postponed on Tuesday because he was too ill to stand trial. The Pretoria High Court was earlier told that Geiges (69) had been diagnosed with cancer of the rectum and was undergoing ”severe treatment”.
South Africa will not immediately share information with other countries on a worldwide nuclear-technology smuggling ring, its ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday. His statement comes a day after he urged other countries affected by the network to enhance their efforts to prosecute other role players involved in it.
Parts of a global nuclear-smuggling ring initiated by the disgraced father of Pakistan’s atom bomb may remain active and nations must do more to crack down on the network, South Africa said on Tuesday. The plea followed last week’s conviction by a South African court of a German engineer for his part in the network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan.
A South African court sentenced a German man to 18 years in prison on Tuesday but suspended the jail term after he pleaded guilty in a case involving a global black market in atomic weapons technology. Gerhard Wisser, an engineer living in South Africa, was accused of having ties to a network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan.