World
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Disgraced Pak N-scientist's file missing, Dutch say CIA didn't do it
Agencies
Amsterdam, December 10: The Dutch justice minister acknowledged today that the dossier of evidence used to prosecute disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan in the 1980s had disappeared, but said there was no evidence of CIA involvement.
Khan worked in the 1970s for a Dutch-based European Nuclear Research Centre, from which he stole secrets used to develop Pakistan's nuclear bomb.
He was convicted in absentia in Amsterdam for the theft in 1983, but it was overturned on appeal in 1985 on a technicality.
In a letter to the Dutch Parliament released, Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said a formal investigation had found the dossier was now empty, except for "a few administrative documents, such as the 1983 verdict and the decision on appeal in 1985."
He said the dossier had likely been destroyed about a decade after the case concluded, though investigators could not rule out other possibilities. His ministry would draw up new guidelines to preserve materials from important cases.
"As for the idea that the CIA played any role in the manner in which the criminal dossier of Khan was administered, no evidence of that was found," Donner's letter said.
Last year, Khan acknowledged selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers said earlier this year that the CIA had insisted the Netherlands not prosecute Khan when the theft was first detected in 1975, as well as when he returned to the country in 1986 to arrange an equipment shipment. He quoted the CIA as saying it wanted to continue shadowing Khan to find out more about his operations.
© 2005: Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd.