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Dutch Businessman Unrepentant About Alleged Nuclear Technology Transfers to Pakistan
A Dutch businessman accused of making illegal nuclear technology transfers to Pakistan said that maintaining the balance of power in Asia required that Islamabad possess nuclear weaponry, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 19). Henk Slebos allegedly sent graphite, O-rings and other dual-use equipment to former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan between 1999 and 2002. Prosecutors are seeking an 18-month prison sentence. A verdict in the trial is expected in two weeks. Slebos, who met Khan while studying at the Delft University of Technology, told the Dutch television program Zembla he was “still best friends” with the scientist, according to an interview posted yesterday on the program’s Web site. “I don’t recognize the hegemony of the Western world,” Slebos said. “Pakistan needed an atom bomb for stability. If you then say the country is too stupid (to have the bomb), then you really make me angry.” Slebos said Dutch intelligence agents visited Khan several times but failed to act on whatever information they acquired regarding the scientist’s black market nuclear network. Slebos was convicted of sending sensitive equipment to Khan’s laboratories in 1985 and sentenced to a year in prison. The term was reduced on appeal and Slebos never spent time in prison, according to AP (Associated Press/Brandon Sun, Nov. 6).
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