First Trial Over Libya's Nuclear Bomb Plan Collapses

The international effort to get to grips with the world's worst nuclear proliferation racket suffered a serious setback yesterday when the first criminal trial of an alleged top figure collapsed.

A judge in the south-west German town of Mannheim threw out the prosecution case against Gotthard Lerch, a German engineer, four months into his trial on charges of helping Libya clandestinely build a nuclear bomb. Judge Peter Seidling said there was a danger of Mr Lerch not receiving a fair trial as the prosecution had withheld evidence.

The collapse of the proceedings is a major setback to the international attempt to close down the proliferation network of disgraced Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was exposed in 2003-4 as the supplier of nuclear technology, bomb blueprints and scientific expertise to Libya, Iran and North Korea. The outcome is a disaster for the German prosecution service, and came as the climax to a series of prosecution blunders.

Mr Lerch, 63, had been charged with violations of Germany's arms and exports laws for allegedly trafficking components for centrifuges for enriching uranium to Libya for Muammar Gadafy's since abandoned nuclear bomb programme.

The prosecution alleged Mr Lerch was paid €8m (£5.4m) for the contracts. He faced up to 15 years' prison if found guilty.

The state prosecutor, Peter Lintz, said that Mr Lerch was among Mr Khan's four main associates, also said to have included British businessman Peter Griffin - who testified in May against Mr Lerch.

Mr Griffin has denied any witting role in the scheme to turn Libya into a nuclear power. Mr Lerch also denied the charges.

Judge Seidling has yet to rule on whether there will be a retrial. The accused has been in German custody for more than a year and his defence team, which maintains that he was a fall guy for a western intelligence plot, is demanding his release.

The defence team has regularly complained it was denied access to evidence, including German intelligence material.

The Lerch case was being closely monitored by international investigators since it was the first time that any suspect from the Khan network had been put on trial. Mr Khan admitted running the nuclear racket in February 2004 and was instantly pardoned by the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf.