Nuclear smuggler sentence in SA

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A South African court has given a Swiss engineer accused of being part of a global nuclear weapons smuggling ring a 13-year suspended jail sentence.

Daniel Geiges, 69, who is ill with cancer, pleaded guilty to involvement in the import and export of equipment.

His sentence was suspended for five years as part of a state plea bargain.

The network was headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan who in 2004 confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

Last year, Mr Geiges' former boss, Gerhard Wisser, at the Johannesburg-based engineering company Krisch was also given a suspended sentence for involvement in the ring.

Both men have been living permanently in South Africa.

The old apartheid regime in South Africa had a nuclear weapons programme, but this was closed down by the white government before it relinquished power in 1994.

Mr Geiges's conviction relates to activities in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the South African Press Association reports.

According to the Associated Press agency, he has agreed to testify in other proceedings.

Mr Khan is regarded by most people as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, but he fell from grace after his revelations four years ago.