Friedrich Tinner - Arrest and Allegations

Arrest and Allegations

His 43 year-old son Urs Tinner has been in custody since 2004 as a suspect in the same network. His brother, Marco Tinner, is also in custody on similar charges.

In May, the President of the Swiss Confederation, Pascal Couchepin announced that the Tinner files, believed to number around 30,000 documents, had been shredded. This was justified to avoid them, "getting into the hands of a terrorist organisation or an unauthorised state", according to Couchepin. However it is alleged that this was a cover-up, to hide the involvement of Urs Tinner with the CIA. Although the Swiss government claimed that the shredding was a security requirement of the IAEA as a measure against nuclear proliferation, it is widely alleged that this was done solely under American pressure, either to hide their involvement or to avoid damage to their own propaganda. Swiss senator Dick Marty has questioned the need for their destruction, pointing out that they could merely have been held secret.