Global Security Newswire

Dutch authorities have begun prosecuting two men on charges that they illegally exported chemical weapons materials and technology to Pakistan, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Jan. 16).

While the two men are not in custody, they have been ordered to appear before a “procedural hearing” next week, said a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Haarlem. The Dutch news agency ANP reported that the exported chemicals could be used to produce mustard gas. The suspects allegedly failed to obtain authorization from the Dutch government before exporting the material, AFP reported.

The two men are also suspected of being connected to top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has confessed to transferring nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, AFP reported.

One suspect, Henk Slebos, attended university with Khan and was convicted in 1985 for illegally shipping nuclear technology to Pakistan, according to the Dutch newspaper NRC-Handelsblad (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, May 3).