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London businessman 'sent weapons to world's war zones'
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor15 Jan 2010
A London businessman is to go on trial for allegedly supplying weapons to some of the world's most war-torn regions.
Gideon Sarig, from Maida Vale, will appear in court next week charged with sending armour-piercing ammunition and pump-action shotguns to eight countries, including Israel and Sri Lanka, in breach of a government export ban.
Among the alleged exports were 91 pump-action shotguns which prosecutors claim Sarig supplied to Israel from Turkey.
Nearly half were sent during the 2006 Lebanon war, while the rest were supplied months before the Gaza conflict last year.
Sarig, 58, is charged with a second Londoner, Howard Freckleton, with supplying thousands of armour-piercing incendiary munitions, bombs and tracer rounds to Sri Lanka.
Other countries that Sarig allegedly supplied include Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, to which he is accused of sending 200 pump-action shotguns and 1,000 semi-automatic pistols.
He is also charged with illegal arms trading with Nigeria, which he is alleged to have supplied with Uzi sub-machineguns and 185,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as unlawful exports to Gabon, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Peru. Full details of the men's activities cannot be revealed because of legal restrictions imposed ahead of their trial, which is due to begin at Southwark crown court on Monday.
Prosecutors said they were arrested in August after an investigation by officers from HM Revenue and Customs, codenamed Operation Alien. As a result of the inquiry, Sarig is now accused of 15 offences, and Freckleton, 64, from Enfield, faces three charges.
All the charges relate to alleged breaches of the Government's Trade in Goods (Control) Order of 2003 which prohibits the supply, or any act which contributes to the supply, of a wide range of arms and security equipment unless an official licence has been obtained.
