QADDAFI MANSION PROFITS MUST GO TO ARMS MAKER, COURT RULES
▶ General Dynamics wants London property to be sold to recoup part of $20m it claims is owed
A US arms manufacturer is entitled to proceeds from any sale of a London property once owned by the Qaddafi family, an English court has ruled.
The £9 million house in Hampstead has been at the centre of a legal tug-of-war between Virginia-based General Dynamics and the state of Libya for more than a decade.
It was owned by Saadi Qaddafi, former commander of Libya’s special forces and son of the country’s former leader Muammar Qaddafi.
Libya confiscated the mansion in 2012, a year after the Qaddafi government was overthrown, and heralded it as the start of an effort to retrieve up to $200 billion in overseas assets that had been looted by the dictator’s family.
General Dynamics, which makes the F-16 fighter jet and M1 Abrams tank, wants the house to be sold so it can recoup part of the £16 million ($20.34 million) it claims it is owed for the supply of communications equipment to Libya.
After several court bids to secure payment for the debt, it has now been granted what is known as a final charging order on the property.
An attempt by Libya to claim it was exempt from the legal action on grounds of state immunity was dismissed by the judge at the High Court in London.
If the property is sold, then Libya must repay the company the proceeds. However, if General Dynamics wants to force a sale it must apply to a court for a further order. A 2016 study by consultants for anti-corruption group Transparency International suggested that $60 billion to $120 billion had been looted by former Libyan regime officials.
The contract between Libya and General Dynamics’ UK subsidiary was signed in 2008.
It said that, in the event of a dispute, the matter would be settled at the International Chamber of Commerce in
Geneva. With payment on a contract worth millions still outstanding, General Dynamics went to the Chamber, which ruled it was owed the money.
The company then applied to the English courts to enforce the debt, and won an order this year, entitling it to be informed of any sale of the property.
Tim Eaton, an expert on Libya at the Chatham House think tank in London, said Muammar Qaddafi was “famed for seeing Libya’s assets as his assets”, to be used for “supporting patronage networks and to benefit individuals rather than bettering the situation of the Libyan people”.
“If this case comes to pass and you see assets taken by the regime going to a contractor then the Libyan people will have got nothing out of it,” said Mr Eaton, a senior research fellow in Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.
“It’s understandable that the contractors want to be recompensed but that’s not going to help the Libyan people much.”
Mr Eaton said responsibility for recovering assets plundered by the Qaddafi family and their supporters rests with the Libyan Asset Recovery and Management Office in Tripoli.
He fears that contractors pursuing claims could “create a perverse incentive” for the LARMO not to seek to out these assets for their use to benefit the people of Libya.
“Why would they bother to recover them if they’re going be targets for compensation claims?”
An attempt by Libya to claim it was exempt from the legal action on grounds of state immunity was dismissed
Hundreds of colleagues of a police officer shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London gathered yesterday to pay tribute on the 40th anniversary of her killing.
Yvonne Fletcher, 25, died while policing a demonstration against dictator Muammar Qaddafi on April 17, 1984.
“It was 40 years ago today that Yvonne was just doing her job policing another demonstration when she was tragically killed in St James’s Square,” her family said in a statement.
“Over the years Yvonne has always been in our thoughts along with all those affected on that fateful day.
“As in previous years the family has chosen to spend the day privately reflecting on the sister we knew and loved without any media intrusion.
“We would like to thank the Metropolitan Police for their continued support.”
Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley visited the scene yesterday and laid a wreath.
Ms Fletcher’s friend and colleague John Murray has announced plans to launch a private murder prosecution against her suspected killer.
Saleh Mabrouk was found jointly liable for Ms Fletcher’s death in a civil case brought by Mr Murray in 2021.
Mr Murray told The National he hopes to get a prosecution moving “in a matter of weeks”.
“In my mind, once we get Mabrouk into a criminal court then what I have done over the past 40 years will be finished and I will have done exactly what I set out to do,” he said. “It’s up to that court to decide if he’s guilty or innocent. I hope to do that and in a matter of weeks to start the criminal case off.”
Mr Murray called Ms Fletcher’s death “one of the worst atrocities executed by Qaddafi”.
“To this very day, the quest for justice for Yvonne continues, and although we have had historic victories in both the High Court and Appeal Court, the man who allegedly orchestrated Yvonne’s murder continues to live freely.”
Mr Murray said that if the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service “cannot or will not proceed with criminal charges, the only option available is to embark on our own legal action in the criminal courts”.
“It is a stain on the nation’s conscience that Yvonne Fletcher’s alleged killer, Mabrouk, continues to live freely in Libya,” he said.
“This private prosecution should mean that Mabrouk will face a criminal trial and Yvonne will finally get the justice our country owes her.”