The Swiss government has come under fire for destroying documents related to an alleged case of nuclear secrets smuggling by three Swiss engineers, media reports said Saturday.

In comments published in several Swiss newspapers, politicians as well as a judge criticised the government over its decision to destroy the documents, with a judge calling the action "outrageous".

The Swiss government on Friday revealed that three Swiss engineers arrested four years ago on suspicion of smuggling nuclear secrets to Libya were in possession of detailed plans of how to make weapons when detained.

(Article continues below)

The revelation came as the government said it had destroyed these documents last November "to prevent them falling into the hands of a terrorist organisation or non-authorised state."

"These were detailed plans of how to make nuclear weapons, of gas centrifuges to produce enriched uranium, and of missile guidance systems," Swiss President Pascal Couchepin said in a statement on Friday.

He added that Switzerland was obliged to destroy the sensitive documents because it would otherwise have been in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the operation was supervised by officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But in comments published in Swiss newspapers St.Galler Tagblatt and Bund, St. Gallen canton judge Niklaus Oberholzer called the Swiss government's decision "outrageous".

Full article here.