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Summary Swiss court has sentenced three engineers affiliated with AQ Khan nuke network.
The Switzerland apex court has sentenced a family of Swiss engineers accused of helping Libya in its failed efforts years ago to build up a nuclear weapons programme.Friedrich Tinner, 70, and his two sons Marco and Urs - are reportedly network affiliates of Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.Tinners started working with the global nuclear smuggling network of Khan in 1990- who is known as the Father of the Pakistani atom bomb, and who allegedly supplied Libya with nuclear weapons technology.Urs, 46, and Marco, 43, received sentences of 50 months and 41 months respectively, while Friedrich was given a 24-month suspended sentence for offences under the War Material Act.Swiss prosecutors launched a case against Marco and Urs in October 2004 and against their father the following year. The brothers spent three and four years in jail respectively awaiting trial, while their father was incarcerated for nearly two years.Before sentencing, the defendants refused to talk about their collaboration with the CIA, which began when Urs contacted the US intelligence agency in 2003.The information they supplied pointed authorities to a German cargo ship that was stopped in the Mediterranean en route to Libya, media reports said.Five containers filled with sensitive material were seized, effectively blocking Libyas nuclear ambitions.
