GERMANY: A German man has been arrested on suspicion of arranging the supply of nuclear arms equipment to a foreign state, German federal prosecutors said yesterday.
Prosecutors said the man, identified only as Helmut R., was detained in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg on Tuesday, although he was subsequently released on bail.
He is suspected of brokering a deal in January 2003 for the supply of equipment used for handling spent fuel rods and for separating plutonium.
"These are required parts of a military nuclear programme," federal prosecutors, who began an investigation in August 2003, said in a statement.
The prosecutors said the 53-year-old's efforts to supply a foreign state with the technology led to the suspicion that he was working as a spy against the interests of Germany. They declined to say which foreign state they were referring to.
Police searched the man's house in Friedrichshafen, near the Swiss and Austrian borders, and his workplace, as well as a company in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, and two firms in Switzerland.
In May, a German businessman was jailed for four years for attempting to ship aluminium tubes to North Korea for possible use in its nuclear arms programme.
South Africa last week arrested German engineer Mr Gerhard Wisser (66) and Swiss colleague Mr Daniel Geiges (65), accusing them of importing and exporting items related to the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
Prosecutors there said the two were part of a global nuclear weapons black market.
German prosecutors declined to say whether there was any link between these cases and the arrested German man. - (Reuters)