Planned shredding of nuclear papers “illegal”

A parliamentary control delegation has rejected plans by the cabinet to destroy sensitive documents related to an international nuclear smuggling ring.

The committee called on the government to seek an acceptable solution with justice authorities for about 100 pages of evidence linked to an investigation of three Swiss engineers suspected of smuggling nuclear weapons technology.

“There is no international obligation to destroy the documents,” said Hansruedi Stadler, a Christian Democratic senator, on Tuesday.

The committee said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed that Switzerland was capable of safely storing the file, which contains more than 1,000 pages including documents on bomb designs, until a court rules on the case of Urs Tinner, his brother Marco and their father Friedrich.

They are suspected of having links to the nuclear smuggling network of Abdul Qadeer Kahn, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, and are believed to have worked as undercover agents for the United States.

Last week, the government ordered the quick destruction of sensitive material, saying it posed a risk.

Switzerland, which is not a nuclear power, is not authorised under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to possess documents related to nuclear weapons.

The documents are copies of files destroyed in 2007 under a previous order, which prompted protests from parliament and legal experts. They had accused the government of undermining the prosecution in the smuggling case.

The copies were found in prosecutors’ archives last December.

Former Justice Minister Christoph Blocher said the government decided to shred the original documents after he refused a request by the US authorities to hand over thousands of files.

swissinfo.ch and agencies

swissinfo.ch