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Swiss family freed in Libya nuke case

Switzerland's highest court on Tuesday sentenced a family of Swiss engineers accused of helping Libya in its failed efforts years ago to build up a nuclear weapons programme.

But Friedrich Tinner, 70, and his two sons Marco and Urs were free to leave the Federal Court of Justice in Lausanne because of the length of time they had already served in detention and a plea bargaining agreement. 

Urs and Marco Tinner 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.

The case began in the 1990s, when the Tinners started working with the global nuclear smuggling network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called father of the Pakistani atom bomb, who supplied Libya with nuclear weapons technology.

Swiss prosecutors launched a case against Marco, 43, and Urs, 46, in October 2004 and against their father the following year.

After their arrests in 2004 and 2005, 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 court heard.

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 Libya's nuclear ambitions.

The Tinners said they had not spoken to Swiss authorities because "the affair was in good hands", in reference to the United States.

The strange case was the subject of a book published last year by two US journalists, Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz, called "Fallout", which tracks the way the United States secretly penetrated Khan's network to prevent Libya and Iran from obtaining nuclear secrets.

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TRIAL

Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists

Three leaders of an Iranian Arab separatist group pleaded not guilty to financing and promoting terrorism in Iran with Saudi Arabia's backing, as their trial opened in Denmark on Thursday.

Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists
File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The three risk 12 years in prison if found guilty.

Aged 39 to 50, the trio are members of the separatist organisation ASMLA (Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz), which is based in Denmark and the Netherlands and which Iran considers a terrorist group.

The three, one of whom is a Danish citizen, have been held in custody in Denmark since February 2020.

Gert Dyrn, lawyer for the eldest of the three, told AFP that in his client’s opinion “what they are charged with is legitimate resistance towards an oppressive regime.”

“They are not denying receiving money from multiple sources, including Saudi Arabia, to help the movement and help them accomplish their political aim,” Dyrn said. 

His client has lived as a refugee in Denmark since 2006. 

According to the charge sheet seen by AFP, the three received around 30 million kroner (four million euros, $4.9 million) for ASMLA and its armed branch, through bank accounts in Austria and the United Arab Emirates.

The trio is also accused of spying on people and organisations in Denmark between 2012 and 2020 for Saudi intelligence.

Finally, they are also accused of promoting terrorism and “encouraging the activities of the terrorist movement Jaish Al-Adl, which has activities in Iran, by supporting them with advice, promotion, and coordinating attacks.”

The case dates back to 2018 when one of the three was the target of a foiled attack on Danish soil believed to be sponsored by the Iranian regime in retaliation for the killing of 24 people in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran, in September 2018.

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Tehran formally denied the attack plan in Denmark, but a Danish court last year jailed a Norwegian-Iranian for seven years for his role in the plot. 

That attack put Danish authorities on the trail of the trio’s ASMLA activities.

Sunni Saudi Arabia is the main rival in the Middle East of Shia Iran, and Tehran regularly accuses it, along with Israel and the United States, of supporting separatist groups.

Lawyer Gert Dyrn said this was “the first case in Denmark within terror law where you have to consider who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.”

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