Four ex-employees of Japanese precision equipment maker Mitutoyo Corp were slapped with suspended jail sentences on Monday for illegally exporting nuclear parts to a subsidiary in Malaysia.

The prison sentences for the four high-ranking Mitutoyo officials, including its former chairperson Norio Takatsuji, varied between two to three years.

Citing an anonymous Tokyo District Court official, the Associated Press reported that the four admitted to charges of illegally exporting measuring devices that could be used in producing nuclear weapons.

The three-dimensional precision measuring devices measures cylinders that can be used on centrifuges used in uranium enrichment - a process that can produce nuclear fuel or fissile material for a nuclear weapon.

Initially arrested in August 2006 for flouting foreign exchange and customs laws, the four were also found to be involved in exporting five of their devices to a subsidiary in Malaysia via Singapore between October 2001 and July 2005 without government approval.

Japanese laws require companies to obtain government permission for sensitive exports valued at more than US$8,500 (RM29,000) to all countries.

The report did not mention the Malaysian company involved.

When news of the Japanese clampdown on Mitutoyo Corp broke last year, Malaysian company Scomi Group in an immediate response denied any involvement in the matter.

Case closed?

It's chief executive officer Shah Hakim Zain said Scomi was not involved in nuclear black market activity.

"Whatever investigations have been done, we came out with a clean bill," said Shah in reference to a 2004 probe by the Malaysian police and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

He confirmed that the Japanese authorities on the Mitutoyo case did not contact them to assist investigations.

"The case is closed," he said, according to AFP in September 2006.

In 2004, Scomi - owned by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son Kamaluddin - was embroiled in a international scandal when it was found that it's subsidiary, Scomi Precision Engineering (Scope), had allegedly exported nuclear parts for Libya's uranium enrichment programme.

Malaysian and international authorities implicated Sri Lankan BS Tahir, 44, as the middleman in setting up a deal between Scope and Dubai-based company Gulf Technical Industries (GTI) in 2001 to produce the centrifuge components.

The parts manufactured by Scope, were seized by European authorities on a ship in Italy on route to Libya in 2003 prompting an international investigation.

Scomi was cleared of any wrongdoing and claimed that they were unaware of the centrifuges nuclear capabilities, as it was also used in the oil and gas industry.

They also claimed that they were unaware of where the centrifuges parts would be exported to.