More South African Nuke Hanky Panky

Wrists slapped, sentences suspended.

The Pretoria High Court sentenced Swiss engineer Daniel Geiges to 13 years' imprisonment yesterday for his involvement in the illegal import, export and manufacture of components relating to nuclear equipment and material. But Judge Willie van der Merwe suspended the sentence for five years, in accordance with a plea bargain struck between Geiges and the state.

He agreed to the confiscation of 50000 and Sf74000 in cash, which had been frozen by Swiss authorities. Geiges further agreed to provide statements exhaustively detailing his knowledge of all matters relevant to nuclear proliferation.

In September, his co-accused , German national Gerhard Wisser, was given a suspended sentence as well; also after a plea bargain . And like Geiges, Wisser consented to a confiscation of his overseas assets, worth R2,8m and R6m in cash. He pleaded guilty to the manufacture of systems for a Libyan gas centrifuge plant between 1999 and 2003; the import and export of a flow-forming machine; and the manufacture and export of three autoclaves. He also admitted to the forging of documents to make the exports appear lawful.

Their trial was supposed to have started in July last year but the state was unsuccessful in its appli cation to close the trial to the public entirely . It had argued that there was a need to protect the release of sensitive information, which might compromise national and international security. The Pretoria High Court dismissed the state's application in May but said a court could be cleared at certain stages of the proceedings.

Both Geiges and Wisser were arrested in 2004, on charges of contravening the laws on nuclear power and weapons of mass destruction. Their arrests were connected to the activities of the Abdul Khan network and its procurement efforts for Libya and Pakistan. In 2004, Khan, a Paki-stan national, confessed to having been involved in a clandestine, international network of nuclear-weapons technology proliferation in Libya, Iran and North Korea.