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Two brothers are among the four charged with violating Libya sanctions together with arms dealer James Fenech, The Shift can reveal.

The five are accused of breaching sanctions through one of Fenechs companies, Sovereign Charterers, during an operation off Libyas coast last summer.

The names of the other four charged with Fenech have so far been kept under wraps, for reasons unknown. They were simply described as Fenechs employees.

Yet, a court order dated 24 April to freeze the assets of four individuals that was published in the Government Gazette lists their names. Their personal details match those in initial reports the police gave to the media although their names were withheld.

Investigations by The Shift show that brothers Bertrand Agius, 47, (a delivery man) and Konrad Agius, 44, (a government blacksmith) were among the four arraigned together with Fenech.

They were joined by pensioner Charles Bugeja, 63, and Michael Cauchi, 45, both residing in Mellieha the same locality where Fenech started his arms trade business from a small shop selling supplies to Maltese hunters.

The five were charged after the police launched an investigation into the use of Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBS) in June 2019 by personnel with links to the Emirati government and its efforts to arm Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army.

They have denied the accusations and were given bail by Magistrate Victor Asciak. Fenech is insisting that the polices charges relate to fully authorised operations and that his group will have the opportunity to clear its name.

The Shift has documented Fenechs rise from a hunting shop in Mellieha to one of the EUs key arms dealers.

Fenechs work has repeatedly made international headlines. His organisation made its mark in recent years supplying weapons to private security firms working for the EU, partnering also with Erik Prince, a former US Navy SEAL officer and the founder of Blackwater a controversial US private military company that was given unclassified security contracts from the CIA during the Iraq war.

Currently, Fenechs Mellieha shop Fieldsports has a quasi-monopoly in supplying armaments to EU companies, being one of the very few suppliers in the EU accredited to sell lethal weapons on EU soil for private users, according to reports prepared for the European Parliament. Big firms in the industry turn to the local shop Fieldsports when they need to order weapons for armed guards deployed to protect EU embassies.

Other companies controlled by Fenech, Strategic Supplies and REA Malta, take care of logistics for various UN agencies and NGOs in hostile environments.

They are among a long list of companies in which Fenech is involved that shows he has diversified his investments, even tapping into some 60 million in road works by the Maltese government.

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Court order reveals names of those charged with busting Libya sanctions - The Shift News

Robert Abela said on Monday that during his time as legal advisor to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, he was not aware that Neville Gafa served as Maltas envoy in Libya during migration talks in Tripoli.

I only learnt of his visits [to Libya] from what was being reported in the media, Robert Abela, now prime minister, said in reply to a series of parliamentary questions filed by Opposition MP Claudette Buttigieg.

A former official at the Office of the Prime Minister during Muscats administration, Gafas official role had been concealed for months until the government admitted he was Maltas envoy in Libya.

Though he was not retained when Prime Minister Robert Abela took office last January, he recently made headlines after he testified in court that he had coordinated the pushback to Libya of 51 migrants involved in a tragedy over Easter on the instruction of the OPM.

However, the prime minister refuted such claims saying the government had only sought Gafas help in view of the latters contacts in Libya, while denying that there had been any pushback at all.

Opposition MP Buttigieg asked Abela to outline Gafa's during these visits to Libya, given that there was no agreement between Malta and the Libyan coast guard on how to handle irregular migrants. Buttigieg also asked if Abela had been aware of Gafas role, in the first half of this legislature when the was the legal advisor of the then prime minister Joseph Muscat.

In a terse reply, Abela said that as indicated by his predecessor, Gafa was representing the Maltese government during these visits, while emphasising that he was no longer part of the OPM secretariat.

Furthermore, he pointed out that he was not aware of Gafas role when he was Muscats advisor and he only learnt about the matter from media reports.

Buttigieg also asked for all of Gafas employment contracts with State entities to be tabled in parliament. But the prime minister declined, saying he had nothing to add to the reply given to a previous parliamentary question on the matter.

That previous question, dating back toJuly last year, showed that Gafa served as a customer care assistant at the health ministry from June 2013 to April 2014, projects director at the foundation for medical services between April 2014 and December 2018, and finally a coordinator at the OPM from January 2019 onwards. There was no reference to his missions in Libya.

The Opposition MP also asked if the prime minister was going to order an investigation into claims of the existence of an unofficial agreement between Malta and the Libyan coast guard on migration. That claim had emerged during the public inquiry related to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Abela replied that institutions were free to launch any investigations they felt appropriate.

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'I only learnt of Gafa's Libya visits from the media' - Robert Abela - Times of Malta

1. Libya is Sliding Toward Partition  Bloomberg
2. Tide turning in Libyan war  Anadolu Agency
3. Libya's al-Sarraj rules out future negotiations with Haftar  Al Jazeera English
4. Peace Storm: Turkey tries to turn the tables in Libya  Ahval
5. Israel's little-known support for Haftar's war in Libya  Middle East Eye
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Libya is Sliding Toward Partition - Bloomberg

Social media activists circulated reports of a valuable catch at the Haftar-controlled Al-Wattia air base in eastern Libya.

The activists stated that a group of French and Emirati advisers were trapped at the air base, after the attack carried out by the forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA) last Monday, following which they took control of the entire West Coast cities, serving as the bases strategic depth on the Mediterranean coast.

In turn, Tunisian MP Maher Zid accused the United Arab Emirates, in a post on Facebook, of communicating with the Tunisian presidency to ensure smuggling the Emirati officers trapped in Al-Wattia air base.

A military source in Tripoli informed Arabi21 that he does not rule out these reports, as it is likely that a number of foreign officers (whose identities have not been revealed) have already been trapped in Al-Wattia air base after losing contact with Haftars forces, that were expelled from most areas of the Libyan West. However, the source did not provide detailed information on the issue.

Another source confirmed to Arabi21 that despite the fact that the GNA army launched an offensive on the air base about three weeks ago, the troops did not manage to storm the entire location. Thus, the forces of Operation Volcano of Anger raided the bases dorms only, and captured a number of Haftars officers and fighters, without managing to access the weapon stores, aviation facilities and other parts of the air base, in which other officers are likely to be hiding.

The same source pointed out that the base, which mediates a rugged mountainous region in the west, is not completely surrounded by the GNA forces, as it can be infiltrated through the city of Zintan (south of the base), pointing to the presence of rugged mountain paths in that area, known only to the residents of the Nafusa Mountains.

Arabi21 spoke to Mustafa Al-Mujai, spokespersonof the GNAsOperation Volcano of Anger, who affirmed that he had no information on the matter, nor the officers trapped at the base, indicating that he saw the news on social media platforms.

READ: How not to fail as UN envoy to Libya

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Libya: Government forces surround foreign military personnel in Haftar-controlled air base - Middle East Monitor

By Sami Zaptia.

(Photo: LBC)

London, 16 April 2020:

The Libya Business Council (LBC), the only legally recognized Libya-wide business council representing businesses, warned today of the possibility of food shortages and price increases, especially in foodstuffs, due to the inflexible policies introduced by the Tripoli Central Bank of Libya (CBL) on the opening of Letters of Credit.

The LBC said that this was especially the case in view of the current conditions the country is going through, in reference to war on Tripoli, the oil blockade and the outbreak of the Coronavirus and their ramification on prices, supplies and trade.

The LBC said that this was especially the case in view of the current conditions the country is going through, in reference to war on Tripoli, the oil blockade and the outbreak of the Coronavirus and their ramification on prices, supplies and trade.

LBC chairman Abdalla Fellah, warned of the upward increases in prices in the local market and his fear of the scarcity of goods, especially food stuffs, due to the inability to import and the usual flow of goods as a result of the prohibitive requirements contained in the CBLs 8 April publication No. (2) to local banks on the conditions for opening LCs.

In a very damning swipe at the CBL, Fellah said that the CBLs new conditions for opening LCs has returned businesses to the times of directed trade, in a subtle reference to the bad old Qaddafi days where supporters and cronies of the regime received exclusive preferential treatment.

The accusation comes as the CBL today published a list of select companies it had opened LCs for. Accusations of corruption and favouritism have already been directed at it.

Fellah added that this prohibitive LC policy expressly reflects the central banks hegemony in its restrictive decisions and publications that dont take into account current difficult circumstances that the world is going through in general and Libya in particular, which will have consequences for the Libyan market and therefore on the citizen in the form of scarcity of goods and high prices.

In the same context, the LBC referred to the Libyan Banking Associations letter of 15 April to the CBL raising the same concerns about the scarcity of goods and price rises if a flexible mechanism in the implementation of documentary credits was not reached soon in order to easily provide the necessary goods to citizens at these difficult times.

Putting the call by the LBC for the CBL to be more flexible in its LC opening policy, it will be recalled that there is an ongoing battle between the Tripoli CBL and the Tripoli government as to who has ultimate control over economic and monetary policy.

The Tripoli CBL claims it is a technocratic monetary body not involved in political decisions and is the custodian of Libyas reserves of wealth accumulated in the 42-year Qaddafi era.

However, as politics and economics are two sides of the same coin, the CBL has been accused of being in total control of spending decisions.

On 8 April, Libyas internationally recognized Prime Minister, Faiez Serraj, launched a damning broadside on the CBL and its Governor Saddek El Kaber. He accused it of:

He complained that the CBL was too rigid in its decisions during times of crisis and referred to the rest of the world and their extraordinary measures during the Coronavirus outbreak let alone Libya and its virtually permanent state of crisis.

He saw no logic or wisdom in the halting of the opening of LCs at a critical time for the country time when other countries were increasing their strategic stocks of medical and food supplies. He placed the responsibility of this delay on El-Kaber, warning that even if he did recommence the issuing of LCs, it could be too late as the goods Libya needs may no longer be available during this Coronavirus crisis.

Serraj said that his government through its Economy Ministry should be the competent authority making the countrys economic decisions and not the CBL. He complained that Libyas monetary and financial policy and liquidity problems are the concern of the CBL and that it should do that job including solve the countrys bank queues. Serraj said that its interference in all other government policy was causing confusion not solving other problems and was very dangerous and needed solving.

He said that the CBL failed to come up with reform policies because its board is split and called for the reunification of the its board.

He said the CBL had become an unknown black box that no one knew how it operated. It wanted to interfere in all state institutions but did not want anyone else to interfere in it, adding that It should accept its responsibility.

The CBL should reform its institutions under its competency, make liquidity available, reduce bank queues, complete its board, set foreign currency sales surcharge instead of the government and provide a monetary policy by concentrating on its areas of competency.

In lieu of the adoption of Libyas permanent constitution and subsequent full elections, the CBL considers the successive governments since the 2011 revolution that overthrew the 42-year old Qaddafi regime, as short-term interim governments with questioned legitimacy and, in the CBLs view, limited mandate and authority. To this end it sees itself as the long-term custodian of Libyas accumulated oil wealth. It expects prudence and sustainable policies from these interim governments.

This is especially saw in the case in view of the war on Tripoli since April 2019, the oil blockade since January this year and the Coronavirus curfew since March.

Serraj speech to the nation: Attacks CBL and treasonous media, says international community concerned purely with self interest

LBC re-elects Abdalla Fellah as its head

Tripoli government announces further salary cuts to rationalize spending in light of oil production and export stoppage attributed to Hafter

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Libyan Business Council warns of food shortages and increased prices due to CBL's inflexible Letters of Credit policy | - Libya Herald