New accusations against Regli
The former head of Switzerland’s secret service, Peter Regli, reportedly bought two Russian air-defence missiles without the knowledge of the Defence Ministry.
According to the Defence Ministry’s spokesman, Oswald Sigg, Regli acquired the two weapons of the type SA-18 in the name of the secret service in 1994, which have since been deposited in an army depot.
In an interview with the Swiss-German news programme “10 vor 10”, Sigg said it was not clear to him how Regli could acquire the weapons as the Defence Ministry was not involved.
Selling foreign weapons for test purposes was quite common practice in the 1980s, however, “the acquisition in 1994 was an exception,” Sigg said.
The two air-defence missiles cost as much as SFr300,000 and Sigg does not quite know yet what to do with the weapons, which are currently stored in a secret bunker near the Swiss town of Thun.
“10 vor 10” also reported Regli as saying he only bought the weapons as a safety precaution as he did not want them to end up in the hands of terrorist after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
Earlier this year Regli was accused of being involved in the criminal activities of Wouter Basson, South Africa’s director of a covert chemical weapons programme during the apartheid era.
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