UK extends Libyan asset freeze, seizes currency
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain extended a freeze on assets to a further 20 members of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's entourage on Friday, and has impounded around 100 million pounds ($160 million) of Libyan currency.
Around 2 billion pounds of assets belonging to Libyan interests are believed to have been frozen in Britain under sanctions against Gaddafi's government after its violent crackdown on protests against Gaddafi's 41-year rule.
The asset freeze was imposed last week and initially applied only to Gaddafi and his immediate family. It now extends to 26 people.
"The financial net is closing in on Colonel Gaddafi," finance minister George Osborne told BBC television.
"We're denying him access to bank notes, access to bank accounts, making sure he is held accountable for what is taking place in Libya and also denied the means to persecute his own people."
Osborne said British officials were closely monitoring other bank accounts that might be linked to the regime and freezing those where appropriate.
British authorities seized the cargo of 100 million pounds of Libyan currency from a ship that returned to its waters on Wednesday after it was unable to dock in the Libyan capital of Tripoli because of security concerns.
The boat eventually docked in Harwich, eastern England, where British border guards unloaded its containers and took them to a secure location.
Osborne said British authorities had been following the ship for a week and Gaddafi's regime had also been getting daily updates on its whereabouts.
Prime Minister David Cameron said earlier this week that Britain had blocked a separate shipment of 900 million pounds in banknotes destined for Libya.
Treasury officials and HSBC refused to comment on reports that the bank holds many of the cash and assets affected by the freeze.
The Libyan Investment Authority, Libya's sovereign wealth fund, has a stake of more than 3 percent in Pearson -- publisher of the Financial Times newspaper. That stake has been frozen.
(Additional reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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Is this right or what – the banks always find ways not to pay their dues – even so I wish the Libyan people all the best
It is hard for some to deal with bullies, but to deal with bullies with guns is something else – The South Africans found a solution in bullies letting go in their truth and reconciliation committees, they did well.
We should all of us wish the very best to the Egyptian Nation.
Good luck to how you want your democracy to work for you.
My advice is to ensure you print a tick box next to “None of the Above” and make it a legal vote count and then if people don’t like any of the candidates they can force another election until the people get what they want – by the way the politicians are afraid of doing this in my own country, always on the basis that it would cost too much – but it is what people want on the ballot form and they want it a counted vote, why because everyone wants democracy to change for the better.
The nice thing is that no one in my country would think I was being insurrectionist in any way by asking for a tick box none of the above, count as a vote – why, well everyone here truly wants our own form of democracy to make a step up for the better).
As it is the people who vote, they should be allowed to take as much time as they want to decide who is gonna do what for them and by the way we also here know, that there is no point to rioting or burning stuff as we only have to build it all back up again and that if you allow rioting, your just falling into the arms of the very people you are trying to get rid of (this is what our own history has shown us as so real).
And that is why everything has to be done in a non violent way.
I hope this helps.
The very best to you all and Good Luck.
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