ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani court declared disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan free yesterday, ending five years of house arrest for the man at the centre of the world’s most serious nuclear proliferation scandal.
Dr Khan, lionised by many Pakistanis as the father of the country’s atomic bomb, confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in 2004, but was immediately pardoned by the government, although his movements were restricted to effective house arrest.
“It’s a matter of joy. The judgment, by the grace of Allah, is good,” Dr Khan told reporters outside his Islamabad house soon after news of the High Court ruling broke.
The 72-year-old scientist, who has been treated for prostate cancer, said he did not care what foreign governments thought.
Dr Khan’s detention had been relaxed over the past year and he had been allowed to meet friends and had travelled to Karachi at least once under tight security. He had also given a series of interviews to media after a new government came to power last March but was barred from speaking to reporters by a July court ruling.
Dr Khan’s lawyer, Ali Zafar, said the High Court had declared that he was not involved in nuclear proliferation or criminal activity and there was no case against him.
The government had long maintained that Dr Khan was not officially under house arrest but was being held for his own security. It was not immediately clear to what extent security agencies would still restrict his movements.
Pakistan has never allowed foreign investigators to question Dr Khan, saying it had passed on all relevant information about his nuclear proliferation. US and international nuclear experts still want to question him.
Last year, a UN nuclear watchdog said Dr Khan’s network smuggled nuclear blueprints to Iran, Libya and North Korea and was active in 12 countries.
– (Reuters)