LONDON, U.K.: British prosecutors told a London court this week that two arms brokers illegally supplied ex-Soviet surface-to-air missile systems to South Sudan and fighter jets to Libya during its civil war.
British citizen David Greenhalgh, 68, and Greek citizen Christos Farmakis, 48, are accused of being involved in illegal arms deals between 2009 and 2016. Greenhalgh faces 11 charges, while Farmakis faces 12. Both have denied the charges, and their trial began this week at Southwark Crown Court.
Farmakis has chosen not to attend the trial, and it is continuing without him, the jury was told.
Prosecutor Edmund Burge said the two men had very close links with senior officials in South Sudan. He said Farmakis had even been appointed as South Sudan’s honorary consul to Greece and Cyprus.
According to the prosecution, the men helped arrange a deal to supply a complete air-defense missile system from Ukraine, worth nearly US$55 million, between 2009 and 2011.
At that time, South Sudan was still part of Sudan and was under a British arms embargo, Burge explained.
The prosecutor said the men discussed using a Ugandan end-user certificate as cover to conceal where the missile system was actually going.
Farmakis was arrested in 2016 after he used his work email from a government-funded organization in London to secretly arrange arms deals, Burge said.
An email from his account was accidentally forwarded to his boss, which led authorities to find documents about plans to sell fighter jets and other weapons to Libya after the Arab Spring in 2011.
Burge also said emails and other documents suggest the two men planned to supply weapons to Iran, Iraq, and Syria in violation of arms bans.
The trial is ongoing and is expected to finish in June.
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