Urs Tinner

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Urs Friedrich Tinner (born November 6, 1965 in Sennwald ) is a Swiss engineer and former agent. As a spy for the CIA , he helped expose Muammar al-Gaddafi's nuclear weapons program ; He was suspected by the Swiss authorities of violating the Swiss War Material Act.

Nuclear smuggling into Libya

From 1998 Tinner worked in Dubai and Malaysia for Abdul Kadir Khan , the "father of the Pakistani atomic bomb", and for his confidante Buhary Syed Abu Tahir. He came into possession of documents that are relevant for the manufacture of nuclear weapons and for the enrichment of weapons- grade uranium . He sold these documents to the American secret service CIA and the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA) , which subsequently intercepted a delivery of nuclear material on the BBC China freighter of the German shipping company BBC Chartering from Leer in October 2003 . Tinner was instrumental in exposing Libya's nuclear weapons program and dismantling Khan's nuclear smuggling network.

Tinner affair

Urs Tinner was arrested in Germany on October 8, 2004 and transferred to Switzerland on May 30, 2005. Arrest warrants were also issued against his father Friedrich Tinner , his brother Marco Tinner and other people. Suspected to have violated the Swiss War Material Act, the Tinners were from the federal prosecutor for years in custody held.

Friedrich Tinner - an engineer who ran a vacuum technology company in Sennwald with Cetec AG and PhiTec AG and had known Khan personally for years, they were involved in the Pakistani uranium enrichment program that led to the first “Islamic” atomic bomb - was born on January 31st Released in 2006.

At the request of the then Justice Minister Christoph Blocher , the Swiss government decided in November 2007 to destroy the documents from Urs Tinner's possession. The Federal Council justified this step by stating that they wanted to prevent these documents from falling into the wrong hands or from Switzerland being blackmailed for it.

The two brothers filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights and complained about the length of the pre-trial detention, and there was no sufficient suspicion or evidence. The process itself, which has been in place since 2004, is taking too long. In addition, because of the destruction of the documents by the Swiss government, they did not have full access to the case files, which violates the principle of equality of arms between the public prosecutor and the accused. The court concluded that Switzerland had not violated the European Convention on Human Rights . The court did not respond to the complaint in connection with the destruction of files, among other things because the criminal proceedings have not yet been concluded. There are sufficient reasons for the duration of detention and proceedings.

Urs Tinner himself was released at the end of 2008 after over four years of pre-trial detention. His brother Marco was released in January 2009. A possible charge is pending with the federal prosecutor's office, which has to decide. In his final report at the end of 2010, the Federal Examining Magistrate Andreas Müller requested that charges be brought against the War Material Act . Marco Tinner is also said to have to answer for money laundering .

In Switzerland these events are known as the Tinner affair , also known as the Tinner files . Parliament's business audit commission, which pushed through the publication of an official report against the will of the Federal Council, sharply criticized the destruction of the files: The Federal Council had resorted to emergency law without any acute threat and thus intervened in an ongoing procedure. There is also the suspicion that the destruction of the material occurred under pressure from the USA, which wanted to cover up the role of the CIA in the atomic smuggling affair. On July 9, 2009, the Federal Investigating Judge's Office secured access to the files against the will of the Federal Council. In November 2011, the Federal Prosecutor's Office confirmed that the indictment had been sent and, at the request of the accused, the abbreviated procedure should be used without public evidence . This means a maximum sentence of five years in prison, which is offset against the pre-trial detention.

literature

  • Douglas Frantz, Catherine Collins: The Man from Pakistan: The True Story of the World's Most Dangerous Nuclear Smuggler.
  • Adrian Levy, Catherine Scott-Clark: Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons.
  • David Albright, Paul Brannan: CIA Recruitment of the Three Tinners: A Preliminary Assessment . Institute for Science and International Security , 2010, Online (PDF; 2.3 MB)
  • Douglas Frantz, Catherine Collins: Fallout: The True Story of the CIA's Secret War on Nuclear Trafficking. Free Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4391-8306-9

Movies

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Allegation of the illegal spread of nuclear weapon technology justifies pre-trial detention. In: Humanrights.ch of April 26, 2011
  2. ↑ Millions for atomic scouts ( Memento from May 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) in: Facts from April 4, 2007; Archive version
  3. ↑ USA stopped German freighters with atomic delivery for Libya in: NZZ Online from January 1, 2004
  4. ↑ Review by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins: The Nuclear Jihadist. Twelve Books, New York 2007 in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  5. ↑ a b Strasbourg rejects the Tinner brothers' complaint in: Tages-Anzeiger from April 26, 2011
  6. ↑ Urs Tinner is free, his brother remains in custody in: NZZ am Sonntag of December 28, 2008
  7. ↑ Hague family in the sights of the investigators ( Memento from June 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) in: vaterland.li
  8. ↑ Urs Tinner released from custody in. Tages-Anzeiger of December 27, 2008
  9. ↑ Marco Tinner released from custody in: Schweizer Fernsehen from January 23, 2009
  10. ^ Publication of Tinner report rejected in: NZZ Online from December 20, 2008
  11. ^ Tinner affair: Harsh criticism of the shredding campaign in: Tages-Anzeiger from January 22, 2009
  12. ↑ The Federal Council fired back in: 20 minutes on July 9, 2009
  13. ↑ Hans Brandt: The protective hand of the CIA Tages-Anzeiger from November 25, 2011, accessed on December 12, 2011.
  14. ^ Review in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  15. ↑ Book about the Tinner case Video in: 10vor10 from January 25, 2011 (5:30 minutes)
personal data
SURNAME Tinner, Urs
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tinner, Urs Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss engineer and former agent
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Sennwald