Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1250967
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 MAY 2020 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Fenech has claimed that in June 2019 his lawyers green-lit his de- cision to lease out the RHIBs to Opus Capital, a company now named in a United Nations re- port, and suspected of being a front for Abu Dhabi's operations in Libya to back Haftar's forces. The UN report says Opus Cap- ital and military contractors Lancaster 6 DMCC (Dubai-reg- istered) financed and directed an operation to provide Haftar's forces with helicopters, drones and cyber capabilities through a complex web of shell companies, according to two diplomats who briefed Bloomberg on the con- tents of the UN Panel of Experts report shared with the Security Council's sanctions committee in February. The mercenaries travelled to Libya in June 2019 for a "well-funded private military company operation" to support Haftar, who is fighting to dislodge the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord. MaltaToday obtained a list of names that took part in the mis- sion, showing there was clear military backgrounds to various men in the operation. The boats were driven out of Malta by coxswains Sean Cal- laghan Louw and Andrew Scott Ritchie, a former Royal Marine commando – both UK nationals. The team was led by South Af- rican national Steven John Lodge. Other names are those of Amer- ican national Travis Alden Maki, a pilot-in-command for flight op- erations in frontier locations in Africa and the Middle East. Maki is vice-president of UK specialist geosciences firm Bridgeporth. Another former South African National Defence Force spe- cial forces name is that of Rudi Koekemoer. In total there were five UK na- tionals, one American, one Aus- tralian, and 12 South African na- tionals. MaltaToday also has informa- tion that a Maltese police officer was requested to take the men's flight helmets upon arrival in Malta. The officer has refused to confirm or deny with Malta- Today whether he did this while off-duty at the behest of third parties representing the merce- naries. Law enforcement sources claim there were no flight hel- mets when they arrested the men. Lancaster 6 is run by Christiaan Durrant, a one-time Malta resi- dent and former Australian fight- er pilot. He was an associated of Blackwater founder Erik Prince in Frontier Services Group, where he served as director of aviation and later director of op- erations. In 2017, both Durrant and Prince were registered in one of the crews competing for the Rolex Middle Sea Race, records held by the Royal Malta Yacht Club show. Their yacht's sail carried the familiar trademark logo of Black- water, the defunct private mili- tary company run by Prince. Durrant opened a Malta sub- sidiary of Lancaster 6, and its company secretary was Amanda Perry, a British national based in Dubai who heads Opus Capital Asset. A letter to Bloomberg from Vince Gordon, the lawyer rep- resenting Lodge, Durrant and Perry in the matter, has dis- puted the accusations in the UN report, quoting Durrant as saying: "allegations about the unlawful activity of Opus and Lancaster 6 in Libya are simply not factual and spread based on a patchwork of half- truths." The letter said that they had cooperated with the UN inves- tigation and offered to meet the panel several times. "Our cli- ents intend to vigorously defend themselves and their directors and employees against false and misleading allegations." In Malta, James Fenech has de- nied having any links with either Durrant or Prince. Through his company PBM Limited (Precision Ballistic Man- ufacturing), Fenech has a brand- ing agreement for the Blackwater Ammunition trademark. Fenech insists he has no form of "deal- ings" with Prince even though PBM – which has an Italian man- ufacturing base – has an exclu- sive deal with Prince's brand for its products. Fenech says Opus Capital en- gaged Maltese lawyers to assist in immigration procedures. While the evacuation occurred within 24 hours of the departure of the RHIBs from Malta, Fenech says his company was not involved. "The authorities were notified prior to the evacuees' arrival. Our vessel was withheld by the local authorities for a number of days and was released from where it was docked at the Valletta Wa- terfront." UN investigators said in the re- port they were unable to deter- mine why the team pulled out, but that the explanation provided by their lawyers – that they were providing services related to oil and gas – was not convincing. Although fined by police over immigration irregularities, Fenech insists this was done er- roneously since the men were employees of Opus. "We had provided all the documentation of the transaction [the lease] in- cluding contracts and all that was requested last July. I was never questioned prior to the 22 April this year." NEWS Left: Lancaster 6 CEO Christiaan Durant sailed in the 2017 Rolex Middle Sea Race on Erik Prince's boat, 'Blackwater'. In Malta he opened a Lancaster subsidiary whose company secretary is Amanda Perry (right), which the UN panel of experts' report says is the head of Opus Capital Below, left, James Fenech with Nicola Bandini, who runs PBM in Italy MATTHEW VELLA THE NGO TRIAL International has filed a criminal complaint for complicity in pillage against the Swiss company Kolmar Group. In a joint report published by TRIAL International and Public Eye in March 2020, the Zug-based trading company was shown to have purchased smuggled gasoil from Libya. "Having analysed the evidence gathered during the investiga- tion, TRIAL International con- cludes that the Swiss trader may have been complicit in the war crime of pillage. It is now up to the Swiss prosecuting authori- ties to shed light on the Zugese trader's actions," the NGO said. The investigation conducted by TRIAL International and Public Eye retraced the trans- national network of subsidized gasoil smuggling from Libya. The fuel was diverted from Libyan tanks with the complic- ity of an armed group, tran- shipped from Libyan fishing boats to larger vessels chartered by two Maltese businessmen in international waters, and finally transported to Malta. This is where the name of Kolmar Group AG appears: ac- cording to the investigation, the Swiss trader purchased more than 50,000 tonnes of gasoil stored in tanks of the Maltese capital between 2014 and 2015. The Swiss company did not deny having purchased this fuel when it requested a right of reply to the report, published on 2 April 2020. "We believe that the evidence gathered warrant an inves- tigation by the Office of the Attorney General to deter- mine whether Kolmar wilfully ignored such signals. If so, the company may have been com- plicit in a war crime," said Philip Grant, TRIAL International's Executive Director. If a company knowingly buys stolen raw materials from a country at war, it may indeed be found guilty of complicity in pillage, a war crime under the Rome Statute of the Interna- tional Criminal Court as well as under Swiss criminal law. The gasoil purchased by Kol- mar Group AG had been looted by a smuggling network, with the support of an armed group, at a time when Libya was torn apart by armed confrontation between rival factions. The suppliers and transporters of the fuel that was accepted in the tanks in Malta are already facing charges in Italy – namely Darren and Gordon Debono, and Libyan smuggler Fahmi Slim Ben Khalifa. Oil trader that used Malta tanks could face war crime investigation