Closed Trial Sought for Alleged Nuclear Smugglers

South African prosecutors are pushing for the trial of two South African residents accused of being part of a nuclear technology black market to be held largely behind closed doors, the Mail and Guardian reported (see GSN, March 2).

In the trial of Daniel Geiges and Gerhard Wisser, allegedly part of the proliferation network of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, prosecutors argued that keeping the proceedings under close wraps would prevent the dissemination of sensitive nuclear information.

Khan, who remains under house arrest in Islamabad, Pakistan, was involved in supplying nuclear technology to nations including Iran, Libya and North Korea (see GSN, Nov. 27, 2006).

The prosecutors are pushing for the majority of the trial to be held outside the view of the public and the media, according to the newspaper which has legally opposed the maneuver.

According to the government’s case against the two men, they played a key role in the landing the technology that led to South Africa’s apartheid-era nuclear weapon that the state then relinquished.

Kirsch Engineering, their firm, was “a major supplier of systems, components and technology to (South Africa’s) nuclear program, including its enrichment activities,” according the government (Sam Sole, Mail and Guardian, March 31).

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