A lawyer who is representing an arms dealer accused of breaching international sanctions against Libya has accused the police of arraigning his client in an attempt to divert attention away from the 2019 migrant pushback scandal.

The compilation of evidence against Fieldsports director James Fenech and four others continued on Wednesday morning.

Fenech is accused of breaching sanctions by supplying two rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIB) that were used during an operation in Libya.

The RHIBs were chartered from a Maltese company called Sovereign Charterers Ltd.

The boats had been used to by foreign military contractors to evacuate personnel from the wartorn North African state. One of the vessels was abandoned during the operation. Sovereign Charterers had told this newsroom that the vessels were chartered by a company involved in oil exploration.

In May 2020, Fenech, together with Michael Cauchi, Konrad Agius, Charles Bugeja and Bertrand Agius, were accused of having supplied men and equipment to a UAE company suspected of acting as a front to assist mercenaries in an operation supporting General Haftar.

Fenech had told a UN panel investigating the incident that he had been tod the vessels were needed for the evacuation of Western oil industry personnel.

Lawyer Joe Giglio, appearing for Fenech quizzed prosecuting inspector Omar Zammit about registration details on the vessels, asking whether the police had checked relevant customs details. The inspector replied that, to his knowledge, they had not.

This prompted an angry response from the lawyer, who asked why the police had arraigned the clients with ‘urgency’ a year after the incident, and at a time when the courts were closed due to the Covid pandemic.

“There were reasons. I don’t remember and need to check, but I recall that we had received some information,” came the inspector’s reply.

Giglio then pointed out that the Maltese media was at the time reporting heavily on the Libya pushbacks. “Was it to deviate attention?”

The inspector replied that this was a “ridiculous” and insulting suggestion.

The lawyer replied that it was an insult to him “that the police haven’t arraigned many other people.”

He then suggested that it was “because of a plan for pushbacks was being drawn up by Neville Gafa.”

The case continues in February.