A BRITISH businessman accused of helping Colonel Gaddafi’s secret nuclear programme had previously been investigated by British authorities for exporting potential atomic bomb equipment to Pakistan.

Peter Griffin, a 68-year-old grandfather, is accused in a report sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency by Malaysian police of helping Colonel Gaddafi to design an uranium enrichment workshop that could be used for nuclear weapons or nuclear power, as well as training technicians and acquiring components. He denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Griffin, an engineer from Swansea, lives in a £500,000 villa on the French Riviera protected by electronic gates, video cameras, high walls and woodland.

The Times can disclose that he has been known to the British authorities since the late 1970s, when he was investigated as part of a network helping Pakistan’s clandestine efforts to become the Muslim world’s first nuclear power.

According to officials in Islamabad at the time, the secret project was part-funded by Colonel Gaddafi, who sent millions of dollars to Pakistan on condition that he was given access to the country’s atomic weapons capability.

However, there is no evidence that Mr Griffin received any money from Colonel Gaddafi.

Mr Griffin’s name emerged again last month when President Bush denounced a black market in nuclear technology created by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the rogue scientist known as the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb.

Last autumn a ship carrying specialised nuclear centrifuge parts to Libya was intercepted by America after being sent from Malaysia via Dubai.

The Malaysian manufacturer said that the components were made for a Dubai-based company called Gulf Technical Industries, which is owned by Peter Griffin and his 40-year-old son, Paul.

An alleged middleman, Bukhary Syed Abu Tahir, has claimed that the Malaysian company engineered more than 25,000 parts for Gulf Technical Industries, according to the police report.

Mr Griffin was alleged to be working on behalf of the disraced Dr Khan, who was providing sensitive equipment to Libya. Whatever equipment Dr Khan could not get directly to Colonel Gaddafi, the Pakistani scientist helped the dictator to build.

According to the Malaysian police report, Mr Griffin designed a workshop to make centrifuges and arranged for eight Libyan technicians to travel to Spain for training in the use of specialist lathes.

Colonel Gaddafi was acknowledged to be close to developing a nuclear bomb when he agreed publicly in December to drop his weapons of mass destruction programme.

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