US seeks custody of illegal exporter

The United States government on Thursday asked the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) to turn over to its custody an Iranian man accused of attempting to illegally export materials for nuclear weapons.

At the same time, it petitioned the court to order the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to keep Parviz Khaki  detained pending the resolution of a case for his extradition to the US.

The 44-year-old Khaki was arrested by NBI agents on May 24 based on a warrant issued by Judge Amor Reyes of the Manila RTC Branch 21 upon the request of the American government.

According to court documents, Khaki conspired to obtain radioactive materials and technology from the United States and export these to Iran from 2008 to 2010 in violation of US laws.

His illegal activities were uncovered after a federal special agent went undercover and through e-mail, contacted Khaki.

Shopping list

The agent said the Iranian ordered from him a special steel used for missiles and bombs, spectrometers for the isotopic analysis of a gas used to enrich uranium,  manometers, vacuum pumps and gate valves.

Khaki also asked for radioactive materials such as Barium-133 source, Europium-152 source and a Gamma source kit, the agent added.

A federal search of his e-mail accounts later showed that he exported twister speed lathes and five pounds of nickel alloy wire from the US to Iran via Hong Kong.

On July 12, a grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted Khaki for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, defrauding the US government, smuggling, money laundering and illegally exporting materials to Iran.