2024-07-31 04:40:00
The South African Daily Maverick newspaper said that reports indicate that the 95 Libyan nationals arrested in a raid on what appeared to be a security training site converted into an illegal military training base are linked to Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya.
The newspaper added that the Libyan nationals are under arrest and will appear before the White River Magistrates Court on Monday, July 29, where they will face charges related to contravening the Immigration Act after entering South Africa on visas obtained through false representation in Tunisia, according to the Ministry of Interior.
The newspaper quoted Jalal Harchaoui, an expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London, as saying that his sources confirmed to him that the South African company providing the training – called Milites Dei Security Services (MDSS) or Milites Dei Academy – refused to conduct the training in Libya and insisted that the 95 trainees come to White River.
Harchaoui said that the eastern Libyan government implicitly admitted its involvement when its foreign minister, Abdulhadi al-Huwaij, said that he was following the Libyans detained in South Africa and would strive to provide them with legal support, according to the newspaper.
Harchaoui said his sources told him that one of Haftar’s sons, Khaled or Saddam, was responsible for arranging the training. The sons were actively running the LNA, with Haftar himself now 81 and less active, The Daily Maverick reported.
Harchaoui compared the South African operation to the recent media revelation that Haftar’s family had contracted former Irish soldiers working for a company called “Irish Training Solutions” to train Haftar’s 166th Infantry Brigade, which took place in eastern Libya, according to the newspaper.
Haftar’s family has huge sums of money and appears to have decided to spend some of it on diversifying the training of the best special forces money can buy, Harchaoui said.
Harchaoui also stated that the military training provided by the Irish company and the South African company violates the UN arms embargo that has been in effect since 2011, noting that this is because the UN arms embargo applies not only to the provision of physical weapons, but also to military services such as training.
The newspaper said it was told that the United States likely informed South African authorities about the training camp in White River because of the close cooperation between Haftar and the Russian state, without citing its source.
The newspaper quoted South African Police Service spokesman Donald Mdluli as saying that more charges could be brought at a later stage.
In addition, the newspaper said that police found daga (hashish) and cocaine, and said that they found other drugs at the site and sent them to the South African Police Forensic Laboratory in Pretoria for identification.
The Interior Ministry said it had cancelled the illegally acquired visas and was working with law enforcement authorities to consider all options, including deportation. The visa cancellation means the 95 Libyans are now illegal foreign nationals, the newspaper reported.
Source: South African Daily Maverick
2024-07-31 04:40:00