Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1491702
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 FEBRUARY 2023 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The official reason for the can- cellation of protection is that Abdelrazek, 44, who is known to Maltese police, had misrepre- sented information about a drug conviction in Egypt. The IPA contends that while Abdelrazek did admit the drug charges, he had willfully misrepresented it as an act of persecution by the Muslim Brotherhood. Originally in April 2014, the IPA – then as the Commissioner for Refugees – denied his asylum claim. But the refugee appeals board chaired by then-law- yer – now magistrate – Joseph Mifsud, upheld his claim due to the upheavals in Egypt after the overthrow of Mohammed Mor- si by the Egyptian army. Abdel- razek's asylum claim had then been filed exactly one month af- ter receiving an 18-month pris- on sentence, suspended for three years, for using a forged passport and false licensing for the boat, the Golden Dawn, on which he resided. Abdelrazek's subsidiary pro- tection has been regularly re- newed since then. But in 2021, the IPA received information from the Malta po- lice that he had been convicted for drug trafficking charges in Egypt, receiving a life impris- onment sentence. "You are also known to the Maltese authori- ties as having been involved with serious organised crime groups dealing in fuel and contraband smuggling," the IPA told Abdel- razek. MaltaToday has seen a confi- dential police report attesting to this claim, in which Abdelrazek's name appears as an associate, though not a core member, of a Maltese organised crime group connected to drug trafficking. Abdelrazek's lawyers contested the revocation of his subsidiary protection, insisting that their client was never once ques- tioned by police and that he had a clean police conduct – despite the falsified passport charges he had been found guilty of. The IPA countered that Abdelrazek had, in his asylum claim, first stated he was arrested on drug charges "as he was walking next to a group of Muslim Brother- hood members"; then changed his version at appeals stage by claiming he was himself a mem- ber of the Muslim Brotherhood. Abdelrazek, who has lived in Malta since 2011, has been asso- ciated with suspicious seafaring activities in well-documented cases. Indeed, in the Easter of 2020 when Malta was under the COV- ID lockdown, the Abela admin- istration enforced a shutdown of ports that prevented the rescue of migrants at sea by NGOs. It was Abdelrazek himself who ad- mitted to the New York Times that the boat he commanded, the Tremar, was part of an unof- ficial pushback of migrants who were steaming towards the Mal- tese waters, ironically to prevent them making their own bid to claim asylum. The Tremar was one of three trawlers that on 12 April 2020 sailed out of Valletta – the other two were the Dar Al Salam 1 and the Salve Regina – all on order of Abdelrazek, who in turn is be- lieved to have been instructed by Neville Gafà, a former insider of the Muscat administration, used as an unofficial roving ambassa- dor to the Libyans. The trawlers switched off their satellite tracking devices soon after leaving port, to intercept a migrant vessel attempting to reach Malta, and return it to the Libyan coastguard. The Dar Al Salam 1 and the Tremar reached the migrant vessel on 14 April, guided by a Maltese military helicopter. Around 50 survivors were taken aboard the Dar Al Salam 1, and together with the Salve Regina, returned to Tripoli on 15 April. The Tremar waited in international waters, Abdel- razek had told the NYT. Fuel smuggling connection Abdelrazek is also a principal of two companies, Daha Oil & Gas, and Rema Trading, which have been identified by Italian police as being connected to ships that were involved in fuel smuggling near Hurd's Bank. One of these ships is the Bonnie B. Abdelrazek is also implicated in another case involving ship owners from Italy and Malta, whose complexity is illustrated by one particular event: the ar- son of one lawyer, Graziella At- tard's car, on 16 October, 2017. Abderlrazek and his brother Khaled Barakat Abdelrazek had filed a case against Attard, and the company owning the fishing vessel Agostino Padre, in 2016, claiming Attard had received a €2.3 million payment, of which €1.3 million had to be paid back to them. The understanding could have been down to an issue of Sharia law that prevented the Egyptian parties from partaking in an interest-bearing loan. Attard filed a counter-claim against the Abdelrazek brothers, and two players in the fuel busi- ness: Italian national Claudio La Rosa of KB Petrols, and Gordon Debono, of Petroplus. The lat- ter's name is especially notori- ous, accused in both Malta and Italy in connection with the €30 million fuel smuggling ring in- tercepted in Operation Dirty Oil in 2017. Attard had claimed that the €2.3 million payment, drafted by La Rosa as a settlement of debts with the previous owners of the Agostino Padre, had been made "after much pressure, violence, and fraud". The former owners of the Agostino Padre had been debtors of La Rosa for the sum of €1.3 million, before they sold the company on to Graziella Attard. mvella@mediatodat.com.mt Egyptian who captained 2020 migrant pushback stripped of asylum Amer Abdelrazek, seafarer associated with fuel smuggling circles and present during April 2020 pushback of migrants to Libya, is revoked subsidiary protection The IPA received information from the Malta police that Abdelrazek had been convicted for drug trafficking charges in Eg ypt, receiving a life imprisonment sentence, and for being involved with serious organised crime groups dealing in fuel and contraband smuggling