Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1313317
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS Delivery fee of just €1 per day for orders up to 5 newspapers per address To subscribe 1. Email us your choice of newspapers, recipient's name, address, contact number to production @millermalta.com 2. Forward cheques payable to Miller Distributors Ltd on address: Miller House, Airport Way, Tarxien Road, Luqa LQA1814 Queries on other news- papers and magazines, production@ millermalta.com maltatoday Same-day delivery of your favourite Sunday newspaper Monday-Friday MaltaToday Midweek • €1 BusinessToday • €1.50 Sunday MaltaToday • €1.95 ILLUM • €1.25 Support your favourite newspaper with a subscription https://bit.ly/2X9csmr CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The US embassy has declined to comment on the claim, when asked by this newspaper about the allegation made by Debono. In his affidavit, Debono also submitted print-outs of a list he was given, of ships suspected of being involved in fuel smuggling in and around Malta, and the hand-written names of the two Russian ships – the Kuznetsov and the Severmorsk – with the years 2016 and 2019 respective- ly next to them, notes allegedly taken during the meeting. In 2016, Malta withdrew per- mission for a Russian navy re- plenishment tanker to refuel at its port after UK and American diplomats applied pressure to the Maltese government to deny access to the tanker, as they be- lieved the fuel would be used to replenish the Admiral Kuznetsov battlegroup. The carrier and sev- en accompanying vessels were believed to be headed to Syria to support the siege of Aleppo. Diplomats were concerned that the Kuznetsov's air wing will be deployed in a bombing cam- paign over Aleppo – a campaign which has inflicted a significant number of civilian casualties. Then in April 2019, the Rus- sian embassy sought permission for a visit by the warship Sever- omorsk, a large anti-submarine guided-missile destroyer, to dock at Grand Harbour, but lat- er withdrew the request. During the same period, the govern- ment also denied a request by Russia for two military aircraft to fly over Maltese airspace en route to Venezuela, a move that was described as "unfriendly" by the Russian government at the time. Debono has already claimed in court that he also refused to collaborate as to whether the refuelling had taken place with the knowledge of Keith Schem- bri, the former chief of staff at the OPM, and the former prime minister himself Joseph Muscat. According to Debono's affida- vit, who detailed the meeting in a bid to have American sanctions on his ships and other assets lift- ed by the Office of Foreign As- sets Control, he was asked to of- fer up information on drug and fuel smuggling networks in the Mediterranean. Together with Gordon Debono, who this week was also arrested and charged with mon- ey laundering, Debono was al- ready facing charges in a Catania court over their alleged involve- ment in a €30 million Libyan oil smuggling ring. The Italians' two-year investigation, dubbed Operation Dirty Oil, followed the movements of Debono's ships as well as intercepted tele- phonic conversations, revealing the central part Debono played in the smuggling ring. In a list of questions he was provided by the US embassy of- ficial, Debono was also asked to reveal influential drug trafficking syndicates – specifically the drug Tramadol – who they sell their cargo to, and how they paid their crews to transport drugs and other illicit cargo. The Amer- icans also named shipper Paul Attard, of the Patron Group, and Libyan national Faysal al-Wadi – the latter was this year slapped with OFAC sanctions over illicit trafficking operations concern- ing drugs transported between the Libyan port of Zuwarah and the maritime location known as Hurd's Bank, just outside of Malta's territorial waters. As it happens, in the summer of 2019, an attempt by the Mal- tese government to have United Nations sanctions issued against the Debonos, was inexplicably prevented by Russia, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Russia blocked the Maltese attempt for a Security Council designation when it 'broke the silence' at the eleventh hour, putting a hold on the designa- tions of the Maltese nationals. Darren Debono had submitted print-outs of a list he was given, of ships suspected of being involved in fuel smuggling in and around Malta, and the hand-written names of the two Russian ships – the Kuznetsov and the Severmorsk – with the years 2016 and 2019 respectively next to them, notes allegedly taken during the meeting with a US naval attaché