|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
German Nuclear Smuggling Trial Begins
The trial of a German engineer accused of breaking his country’s export laws to assist Libya’s former nuclear weapons program began on Friday, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 16). Gotthard Lerch allegedly acted as a middleman in the black market created by former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Prosecutors dropped a treason charge to secure Lerch’s extradition from Switzerland last year, the Times reported. “The trial is hugely important in strengthening international attention to the problem of illegal proliferation,” said Goetz Neuneck of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. “It would be very good for international nonproliferation if the trial were to provide more details and shine more light on dark corners.” Attorneys for Lerch, who has entered a not guilty plea, argued on Friday that they had been denied access to key prosecution documents and requested that the six judges hearing the case be replaced. Lerch is expected to seek documents from Western intelligence agencies to support his case, the Times reported. German authorities investigated Lerch for selling dual-use items to Pakistan in the late 1970s while he worked for a German nuclear technology firm. He was also investigated in the 1980s for allegedly smuggling nuclear blueprints into Switzerland. He was never charged in either instance, according to the Times (Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times, March 9).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
