The spokesman of the Haarlem prosecutor's office would not confirm to AFP that the men being prosecuted were linked to Khan, who confessed to selling Pakistan's nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Ed Hartjes of the prosecutor's office said the men named by ANP, who are active in two Dutch companies, are being prosecuted for exporting chemicals and a technology that could be used for military means to Pakistan without the proper authorisation of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

ANP reports that the chemicals exported can be used in the production of mustard gas.

"The men are not in custody but have to be present in court on May 13 for a procedural hearing in the case," Hartjes told AFP.

According to the Dutch newspaper NRC-Handelsblad, Khan and one of the men being prosecuted, Henk Slebos, went to university together in the Netherlands. They are also said to have crossed paths in their professional lives more than once. Khan is revered as a national hero in Pakistan since he helped test the Islamic world's first nuclear bomb in 1998.

NRC-Handelsblad reports that Slebos was already convicted in 1985 of illegally exporting goods to Pakistan that could have helped set up the country's nuclear program.

WAR.WIRE