It was early Tuesday morning at this home just outside
Montreal that RCMP officers swept in.
The man they arrested, 61 year old Fati Mawik,
is charged with conspiracy. The whereabouts of his Co accused
37 year old Mahmoud Saya,
police say, are unknown. We've issued a Canada award warrant
for his arrest,
but also an Interpol red notice because he's a Libyan
national and we have no idea where he is right
now.
Now the two men were for a time employees at
the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Hail here CMP says it was during their time at
the UN agency that the pair worked out a plan
to sell Chinese military equipment to Libya.
Return. Libya would have sold oil to China between 2018
and 2021.
The two men were allegedly trying to use foreign companies
as a front to get around international sanctions.
Ayosha. According to police, this is the man the plot
was supposed to help.
Libyan General Khalifa Haftar and his six sons control much
of the eastern part of Libya.
His forces tried to overthrow the UN backed Tripoli government
but didn't succeed.
But if Haftar's Libyan National Army takes more of the
country,
he'd have more control over oil exports.
The two former IKO employees would have been the middleman.
Had this deal gone through,
it is theorized that both individual could have received millions
of dollars in Commission on a monthly basis.
In a statement, ICAO says the two men left the
organization a number of years ago.
And that it is cooperating with investigators.
In fact, police say as employees at the UN organization,
both men had a sort of diplomatic immunity.
They couldn't be investigated or arrested until ICAO agreed to
it.
Mike Armstrong, Global News Montreal.