Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: February 11, 2004
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_566508,0005.htm
A Sri Lankan businessman with close
connections to Malaysia's business elite, is emerging as a central figure
in an international investigation into a clandestine network that sold
Pakistani nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, a media report
said.
Bukary Syed Abu Tahir was said to
be a key operative for Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who last
week confessed to illicitly selling nuclear expertise and hardware to third
countries and named Tahir as an associate in the effort, The Wall Street
Journal said in a report from Kuala Lumpur.
The officials and acquaintances
say Tahir and Khan have been friends for years, often travelling together
on business.
Tahir operates a computer supply
and trading business known as SBM Group from his headquarters in Dubai.
Among his close friends in Kuala Lumpur is Kamaluddin Abdullah, son of
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the report said.
Since late November, Tahir has been
the focus of a Malaysian investigation into the sale of centrifuge parts
made by one of Kamaluddin's companies in a Dubai-based company, Gulf Technical
Industries.
The investigation followed the interception
of a Libya-bound shipment of the Malaysian components by European intelligence
agencies last October, the Journal said.
