S Africa seeks secrecy order in atomic trade case

JOHANNESBURG, March 1 (Reuters) A German man pleaded not guilty in a South African court today to charges linking him to a global black market in atomic weapon technology as the government sought a black-out order on further proceedings.

Gerhard Wisser, 67, pleaded not guilty on all counts in a Pretoria court, South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement.

The case is part of an international effort to crack what prosecutors say is a trade network which helped Libya, North Korea and Iran skirt sanctions in their quest for nuclear technology.

Wisser's co-accused in South Africa, Swiss national Daniel Geiges, 66, is in hospital and is expected to appear in court in April, the prosecuting authority statement said.

Wisser and Geiges, both engineers living in South Africa, were arrested in September 2004 after prosecutors said they had evidence linking them to the network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced father of Pakistan's atomic bomb.

Khan has admitted supplying nuclear secrets to countries under international embargo, including North Kora, Iran and Libya, which in 2003 vowed to abandon its nuclear programme.

South Africa -- which voluntarily dismantled its own nuclear weapons programme before the end of apartheid in 1994 -- was among 20 countries named by the UN's atomic agency as recipients of Khan's atomic secrets.

WEAPONS RING At the time of the arrests South Africa played down its role in the global weapons ring, saying the arrests of Wisser and Geiges underscored its commitment to ending nuclear proliferation.

Prosecutors said they had evidence linking the men to efforts to procure gas centrifuge equipment used for uranium enrichment for Libya. A third man originally arrested in the case, Johan Meyer, has since turned state witness.

Prosecutors today said that they had applied to the court to have both trials held in camera with no member of the public or media present.

They also said they would apply for a court order barring publication of any details of the trial, and for all records in the case to be kept in a ''maximum security facility''.

Last year a German court began hearing the case of another man allegedly linked to the Khan network, Gotthard Lerch, who was accused of helping Libya acquire nuclear weapons technology.

German officials said last year that their prosecutors were also in contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna as they investigate the involvement of more than half a dozen other Germans in the Khan network.

Khan, who is a national hero in Pakistan for helping Islamabad counter India's nuclear arsenal, publicly confessed in 2004 to helping Iran and Libya get nuclear enrichment technology and has been under house arrest ever since.

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