Fashion designer testifies in Gaddafi Malta millions case

A Libyan fashion designer has told a Maltese court that the son of the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi – Muatassim Gaddafi – would have indeed got married to the Dutch model Lisa Van Goinga, sometime in 2011.

The Gaddafi family is fighting a bid from the Libyan Attorney General to lay claim to a €90 million fortune amassed by Gaddafi and held at the Bank of Valletta, insisting that the money belongs to Gaddafi’s rightful heirs, which include a son by Van Goinga.

Nabil Younes Saleh, a fashion designer toasted in Paris and Lebanon, told the court he knew back in 2011 that Gaddafi intended marrying Van Goinga sometime in January 2011, right before the Libyan revolution toppled his father.

Saleh was unsure in giving the court a date when the alleged wedding would have happened, saying that Van Goinga had spoken to him about the relationships. “Lisa got married with Mutassim in 2011 in (an) Islamic marriage... Because I can’t remember the date but I know they got married in Sirte, Libya, and I can’t remember exactly the date of the marriage.”

The claims are central to the Gaddafi defence, which are represented by the Cypriot lawyer Charilaos Oikonomopoulos and Louis Cassar Pullicino. Oikonomopoulos is tasked by Muammar Gaddafi’s widow Safia Ferkash, to prevent the Libyan state from obtaining the release of the funds, held by a Maltese company called Capital Resources and Mezen International.

In court, Oikonomopoulos presented a Dutch court document officialising the wedding of Muatassim Gaddafi to Dutch glamour model Lisa van Goinga, who bore Gaddafi a son and heir on 4 February 2012, just months after Mutassim’s death at the hands of Libyan government rebels.

Oikonomopoulos is presenting witnesses who were close friends of the late Muatassim to attest as to the origin of his millions.

“In all discussions I had... not one single member of the family, not one single friend of Muatassim was under the perception, let along the knowledge, that the funds in Capital Resources Ltd... were ‘providence’. They all confirmed that this money was made by a gentleman whose name was not Oikonomopoulos, but Gaddafi; while not in his father’s favours, while not in the government of the state of Libya, for internal family reasons apparently,” the Cypriot lawyer told the court.

“He was allowed to travel worldwide and pick up the phone and speak with Presidents, Prime Ministers of different countries, arrange for [provisions] of different goods and services, and hence get commissions which were put in... Mezen International, and then transferred to Capital Resources, being a transparent company with a director, and beneficial owner being Muatassim Gaddafi himself.”

Muatassim Gaddafi died at the Battle of Sirte after being captured by anti-Gaddafi forces on 20 October, 2011. He was later executed along with his father. He was 36.

Most Gaddafi family members remain unable to travel due to an international ban and asset freeze.

Gaddafi’s representative Saleh Drah was introduced to Bank of Valletta by Joe Sammut, for a meeting with then CEO Charles Borg. According to bank witnesses, due diligence on the company Capital Resources was based on the bank’s prior knowledge of Gaddafi’s activity from another company account he held at the bank.

A United Nations panel of experts in Libya analysing the bank accounts of Capital Resources found some €55 million transferred to it from the company Mezen International. But the main source of funding for Mezen was a third company, Moncada International, which in 2010 transferred over €40 million to Mezen.

Gaddafi also had various Visa platinum accounts, holding €122,770, €84,587, a €22,403 Bank of Valletta gold Visa, and another BOV platinum holding €61,118.