A ring of Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi’s henchmen – including military commanders linked to the bloody suppression of the Libyan uprising – have been found living in Britain by BuzzFeed News.



The three men – who all deny any wrongdoing – are on a target list of former regime figures wanted by prosecutors in Tripoli for allegedly fleeing the country with stolen state assets following the collapse of Qaddafi’s dictatorship in 2011. BuzzFeed News can reveal that they have been given safe haven in the UK despite being accused of laundering millions of pounds through British banks and property deals.

General Ahmed Mahmoud Azwai, who maintained Qaddafi’s missile stockpile, is suspected of laundering millions through properties in the Home Counties via a network of offshore companies. BuzzFeed News found him living in an affluent part of Surrey.



Brigadier Guima Elmaarfi, who commanded a brigade in Qaddafi's army, is suspected of escaping the country with a fortune of at least £14 million following the fall of the dictator and is wanted for allegedly laundering stolen assets in the UK. BuzzFeed News tracked him down to a large house in southwest London. It can be revealed that his son, who fled with him to Britain, was jailed two years ago for stabbing a teenager with a kitchen knife and carving his initial into the abdomen of a man who had been beaten unconscious.

BuzzFeed News has been banned from naming the third member of the Qaddafi regime found hiding out in Britain, after he hired the exclusive law firm Mishcon de Reya and top QCs Dinah Rose and Monica Carss-Frisk to obtain a gagging order from the high court on Monday. The injunction is so restrictive that it is not even possible to disclose the grounds on which it was made.

Lawyers and investigators acting for the Libyan state claim that the three former officials are among scores of regime figures suspected of hiding stolen assets worth a total of $10 billion in the UK. They say the British authorities have done nothing to help them investigate, instead allowing all three men to settle in Britain, and granting Elmaarfi and Azwai political asylum.



Elmaarfi categorically denied all the allegations in an interview at his home in southwest London, insisting that he was struggling financially after leaving Libya empty-handed. Azwai denied stealing from the state, before shutting the door of his home in Surrey.

But documents obtained by BuzzFeed News reveal that the Libyan Transitional Government wrote to Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) in 2012 asking for assistance in recovering money allegedly “obtained through corrupt or illegal means” by 240 former regime figures – including the three men found by BuzzFeed News. The letter warned that some of the money had been hidden in the UK, but investigators say Britain gave no assistance.



The revelations raise questions about the government’s repeated pledges to get tough on money laundering, two months after David Cameron promised new measures to shut illicit cash out of the British property market and “send a clear message to the corrupt that there is no home for them here”. The capital was branded a "welcome mat" for corruption in the UK in a report by the home affairs select committee earlier this month, which warned that "poor supervision and enforcement in the London property investment market are making a safe haven for laundering the proceeds of crime".

The Qaddafi regime was accused of multiple atrocities in its brutal suppression of the Libyan uprising in 2011 and investigators told BuzzFeed News that both Elmaarfi and Azwai led the dictator's forces in the fight against the rebels. Elmaarfi headed a military brigade in the town of Tarhuna and helped round up recruits “to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Libya and the great chief Qaddafi”, while Azwai was responsible for maintaining the Scud-B missile stockpile that the dictator unleashed on protesters in the dying days of the regime. Elmaarfi denied allegations that he “terrorised” rebel-held areas during the struggle and said he had simply defended Tarhuna, while Azwai did not respond to questions about his role in Qaddafi's military.