(supersedes previous)A
preliminary investigations judge in the Marche city of Ascoli
Piceno on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for an Italian man
and two Libyan nationals on suspicion of international arms
trafficking. Ascoli Piceno native Franco Giorgi, 73, has
been prevented from leaving Libya since March 2015.
His two Libyan alleged accomplices are being sought.
Earlier on Tuesday, Carabinieri police arrested an Egyptian
national in the Abruzzo town of Ancarano as part of the same
investigation.
He is accused of being an international arms and weapons of
war broker.
Sources say the Ascoli Piceno native is being held in Libya
by an unspecified organization for accepting a monetary advance
on a shipment of weapons that failed to materialize.
The investigation is being carried out in cooperation with
British and Slovenian police, sources said.
A UN Security Council report said Giorgi is "the main
Italian mediator" for an arms dealing network headed by Libyan
national Abdurraouf Eshati, who is serving six years in Britain
for trafficking 25.5 million euros' worth of arms to the Zintan
Brigades, which played a large part in the 2011 overthrow of
former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Giorgi was arrested in 2002 on suspicion of trafficking war
weapons to the former Yugoslavia, but the inquiry was shelved
and he was released. He was also questioned by a parliamentary
committee investigating the murder of Italian TV journalist
Ilaria Alpi and cameraman Miran Hrovatin in Somalia in 1994.
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