KARLSRUHE, Germany, Oct 11 (AFP) - A Swiss man was arrested in Germany on suspicion of involvement in an international smuggling ring to supply nuclear equipment and know-how to Libya, the federal prosecutor's office announced on Monday.
The 39-year-old, identified only as Urs T., is accused of helping Libya to build nuclear centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium in order to produce atomic weapons.
The German authorities said Urs T. was arrested in the western region of Hesse on Thursday.
Investigators believe he advised a Malaysia-based company and oversaw the production of more than 2,000 pre-assembled centrifuge components.
According to federal lawyers, the parts were shipped first to Dubai then put into at least five containers under false identification papers and loaded on to the German freight ship BBC China for shipping to Libya.
However the containers were unloaded in October last year in the southern Italian port of Taranto after the ship was banned by the German government from unloading its cargo in a port outside the European Union. The containers containing the suspect components were then seized.
Urs T.'s arrest is linked to the detention in South Africa last month of a Swiss engineer, Daniel Geiges, 65, and a 66-year-old German, Gerhard Wisser. They were charged with contravening nuclear energy laws and breaking a law banning the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Both men remain in custody.
German authorities are investigating whether the men broke national secrecy laws.
South African police are currently investigating a nuclear smuggling network thought to have ties to Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who admitted in February to helping Libya and other nations develop weapons programmes.
Libya announced late last year that it was abandoning attempts to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons after months of secret negotiations with London and Washington.