Sixteen British mercenaries en route to Libya intercepted in Malta

British mercenaries in transit for Libya were intercepted in Malta.

Universal Images Group via Getty - Geography Photos

Text by: Houda Ibrahim Follow

3 mins

It was the daily

that revealed it.

The case goes back three weeks.

According to the daily, the authorities explained that they were going to take a private flight to Libya, probably to Misrata.

These former British soldiers work for the private security company of Jack Mann, one of Prince Harry's close friends in the British royal family.

Jack Mann was also part of the group himself.

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Intercepted, with his employees, Jack Mann is suspected by the Maltese police of violating the restriction regime imposed by the UN on arms imports and mercenary activity in Libya.

This former British officer and his colleagues first explained that they were going to provide medical and sports training in Libya.

But the police realized that their trainers' certificates were fake.

The Maltese police suspect these men arrived in dispersed order at the airport of being mercenaries.

They are therefore prevented from taking off.

Later released, Maltese airspace is now prohibited for them to fly to Libya.

Mercenaries from father to son

Jack Mann, 40, is a former British Army officer.

He served in Iraq and Afghanistan before founding Alma Risk, a London-based private security company, in 2015.

According to its official website, this company only hires veterans of the UK military, police or other government agencies.

Jack Mann acknowledges having previously worked in Libya for another British security company, Aegis Defense Services.

Jack Mann is none other than the son of Simon Mann, himself a former British officer who became a mercenary.

He was notably the mastermind of a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in 2004.

Compensation claimed for IRA victims

Today, several questions remain unanswered: who employed these alleged mercenaries?

And for what purpose?

Opponents of Prime Minister Dbeibah accuse him directly.

They suspect him of agreeing to pay compensation to London, which has been demanding compensation from the Libyan state for many years for the victims of the IRA supported by Gaddafi in the 1970s.

For several Libyan officials among Dbeibah's detractors, the British mercenaries had tried to go in search of documents and evidence that would relate Gaddafi's involvement in this conflict.

Dbeibah, who has argued that the Libyan state should take responsibility for crimes committed by the former Libyan regime, already handed over to the United States last month a Libyan officer suspected of having made the bomb that caused blowing up the Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988.

Multiple involvement in Libya

This is not the first time that British servicemen have been involved in mercenary activities in Libya.

In 2020, United Nations experts published a report revealing that already in July 2019, four British mercenaries had reached the Libyan coast from Malta on board inflatable boats.

Others arrived from Jordan by plane.

Direction Benghazi.

Employed by Marshal Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, they were officially to guard oil fields.

In reality, they would have come to provide him with weapons.

Due to a financial dispute, the mercenaries had to leave the country in a hurry, taking 55 million dollars without fulfilling the contract.

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• Libya

• Malta