Belgium probes payments from frozen Libya funds
BRUSSELS: Prosecutors are investigating whether Belgian banks paid out interest and dividends on accounts frozen under UN sanctions in 2011 as the Libyan state under Muammar Qadhafi collapsed, public broadcaster RTBF said on Monday.
Prosecutors, the government and Belgian banks did not comment on the report, which cited an unidentiIED source.
RTBF said that up to 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) could have been disbursed to people controlling Libyan accounts, including militia groups in the country accused of human rights abuses.
RTBF said that when the United Nations agreed to freeze deposits held By QADHAI’S Administration ABROAD, Belgium had done so but had not halted payments of interest and dividends.
HAFTAR IN ITALY
In an unrelated development, Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose self-styled Libyan National Army dominates the country’s east, was in Rome on Monday for talks ahead of next month’s Sicily conference on THE Conlict-hit North AFRICAN nation.
Italy is trying to convince Haftar to support a crisis resolution plan drawn up by the UN’S envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, which will be presented to the Security Council a few days before the Sicily meet, Italian media reported.
Haftar arrived in the Italian capital on Sunday and met with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for a series of meetings ahead of the November 12 to 13 summit, which will be held in Palermo.
The Italian premier had also held separate meetings on Friday with the head of Libya’s Un-backed government, Fayez Al Sarraj, and the UN’S Salame.
Libya remains mired in chaos since THE Fall of QADHAI In 2011.
The country is divided between the Un-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, and a rival Haftar-supported administration in the east.
The UN envoy was quoted by Conte’s OFICE As saying HE BELIEVES THE Palermo conference could be “a key signal of support by the international community to the political process, which is in a particularly important phase.”
Four key leaders from Libya agreed at a conference in Paris in May to hold landmark polls on December 10 as part of a French-led plan to stabilise the crisishit country despite ongoing violence.