BERN, Switzerland — Smuggling charges should be brought against three Swiss engineers suspected of giving nuclear weapons technology to a rogue network in Pakistan, a magistrate said Thursday.
Investigating magistrate Andreas Mueller said his recommendation that the trio, two brothers and their father, face trial is based on an exhaustive probe into an alleged nuclear smuggling ring. Mueller submitted his confidential report to federal prosecutors, who will decide whether to bring charges on violating Swiss nonproliferation laws.
Mueller oversaw the last three years of a six-year federal probe against Urs Tinner, his brother Marco and their father Friedrich. The politically sensitive case was slowed down after the Swiss government repeatedly ordered evidence shredded in the case, allegedly under pressure from senior U.S. officials.
The Tinners are suspected of links to the nuclear smuggling network of Abdul Qadeer Khan — the creator of Pakistan’s atomic bomb. They allegedly supplied Khan’s black market nuclear network with the technical expertise and equipment used to make gas centrifuges. Khan sold the centrifuges for secret nuclear weapons programs in countries that included Libya and Iran before his operation was disrupted in 2003.
Mueller, who said he is relieved to be done with the investigation, harshly criticized the Swiss government for having “massively interfered in the wheels of justice by destroying almost all the evidence.” He said the government also ordered federal criminal police not to cooperate with him.
U.S. officials in Bern had no immediate comment.
Mueller said he recommended the three face charges for “supporting the development of atomic weapons” in violation of nonproliferation laws, while Marco Tinner should face additional charges of money laundering.
Mueller’s 174-page report “is now being studied in detail” by the Swiss attorney general’s office, said a Federal Prosecutors Office spokeswoman.
