British arms broker jailed for 16 years over illegal weapons deals
David Greenhalgh, 68, and Christos Farmakis, 48, were each sentenced to 16 years at Southwark Crown Court over unlicensed arms deals spanning 2009–2016.
A British arms broker who arranged deals to supply ex-Soviet surface-to-air missile systems to South Sudan and fighter jets to Libya during its civil war was jailed for 16 years at a London court on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
David Greenhalgh, 68, was convicted in June of 10 counts of involvement in the unlicensed supply of arms — also including AK-47 rifles, battle tanks and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition — between 2009 and 2016.
Greek national Christos Farmakis, 48, was convicted of nine offences, though tried in his absence and his current whereabouts is unknown.
Judge Sally-Ann Hales sentenced both men to 16 years’ imprisonment, saying they repeatedly sought to breach arms export bans for significant profits.
Prosecutors said only one charge involved the supply of weaponry: the pair sold a former Ukrainian S-125 Pechora missile system to South Sudan, where they had “very close connections to senior figures”. South Sudan was still formally part of Sudan until independence in 2011, prosecutor Edmund Burge told jurors at Southwark Crown Court, meaning it was subject to a British arms embargo.
The pair also arranged to supply weapons to Iran, Iraq and Syria in breach of embargoes, before Farmakis was arrested in 2016. He was caught after using his email address at the government-funded Greater London Enterprise to arrange arms deals — an email forwarded to his boss led authorities to plans to sell fighter jets and arms to Libya after the 2011 Arab Spring.
Sources: Reuters, The Straits Times
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