LOS ANGELES — A man who eluded authorities for 16 years was back in a U.S. courtroom to face charges of illegally exporting nuclear weapons triggers to Israel.
The brief hearing Monday was the first court appearance for Richard Kelly Smyth since he and his wife fled before his 1985 pretrial hearing. He was arrested in Spain in July and extradited to the United States on Friday.
Smyth, 72, was charged in a 30-count indictment with illegally exporting about $60,000 worth of krytrons — two-inch triggering devices that can be used in nuclear weapons.
Krytrons can't be exported without a license or written approval from the State Department. Smyth, who had been president of Milco International Inc., is accused of preparing false documentation for the export of roughly 800 of the tubelike devices, which authorities say were sent abroad in 15 shipments between January 1980 and December 1982.
During Monday's hearing, Smyth told U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin he understood the charges against him. He was ordered to return to court for another hearing next Monday.
His attorney, James Riddet, declined comment.
Smyth, who faces up to 105 years in jail, pleaded not guilty in 1985 before fleeing while free on $100,000 bail. Although he had surrendered his passport, he managed to leave the United States for Spain, where he and his wife had lived in the same Malaga apartment since the mid-1980s.
"We weren't going to have him go to jail for 105 years," his wife, Emilie, said Monday.