Sri Lankan trader Tahir held under ISABy LOURDES CHARLES
KUALA LUMPUR: B.S.A. Tahir, the Sri Lankan businessman who allegedly deceived Malaysian company Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn Bhd (Scope) into manufacturing a component believed to be for nuclear weapons, has been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
It is learnt that police officers investigating the case detained the 44-year-old Tahir at 11.30am in Bangsar yesterday.
Tahir was immediately sent to the Kamunting detention centre.
Under the ISA, police can detain a person for up to 60 days, after which the Internal Security Minister can order a two-year detention.
In February, Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Omar had said that investigations into Tahirs activities and business dealings here commenced on Nov 10 last year, when representatives from the US Central Intelligence Agency and the British MI6 met Special Branch officers here.
He had said that they informed the Special Branch officers that a Sri Lankan businessman identified as B.S.A. Tahir, based in Dubai, had been implicated as a middleman in the supply of certain components for centrifuges from Malaysia to Libyas uranium enrichment programme.
He said the information was obtained following the seizure of five containers containing the component from a ship, the BBC China, in Taranto, Italy, on Oct 4.
On the wooden boxes was printed the name Scope, a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly listed company Scomi.
Mohd Bakri said investigations here revealed that Tahir had in 2001 offered a contract to Scomi for the completion of semi-finished products after assuring the company that it was a legitimate business deal.
It was a one-off deal worth less than RM10mil and Scomi built a small factory in Shah Alam to do the threading and machining of the component that came from a European country.
The IGP said investigations also revealed that the component for centrifuges could also be used for petrochemicals, water treatment and as equipment used in molecular biology for protein separation.
Scomi had in a statement said it had shipped the component to a customer in Dubai in four consignments commencing December 2002. Since the delivery of the last consignment last August, the company had not received any new orders.
It said the products manufactured for Dubai-based Gulf Technical Industries (GTI) L.L.C. were 14 semi-finished components.
The end-use of these components worth RM13mil were never disclosed to Scope by GTI, it said.