A Greek national who served as South Sudan’s honorary consul to Greece and Cyprus is on trial in London charged with brokering illegal deals to supply ex-Soviet surface-to-air missile systems and fighter jets worth tens of millions of dollars, British prosecutors told Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday.
Christos Farmakis, 48, and British national David Greenhalgh, 68, face 12 and 11 charges respectively of involvement in the unlicensed supply of arms between 2009 and 2016. Both have pleaded not guilty. Farmakis has chosen not to attend the trial, which is proceeding in his absence.
Prosecutor Edmund Burge told the court that Greenhalgh and Farmakis had “very close connections to senior figures” in South Sudan, with Farmakis having been appointed as the country’s “honorary consul” to Greece and Cyprus.
Between 2009 and 2011 the two brokered a deal for what Burge described as a “complete air defence missile system” acquired from Ukraine for nearly $55 million. South Sudan was still formally part of Sudan at the time and had not yet achieved independence in 2011, meaning the semi-autonomous region was subject to a British arms embargo. The defendants discussed obtaining a Ugandan end-user certificate as “cover” to obscure the intended destination of the missiles, Burge said.
Farmakis was arrested in 2016 after using his work email address at the government-funded Greater London Enterprise to privately arrange arms deals, Burge said. An email forwarded from his account to his boss led authorities to documents relating to plans to sell fighter jets and other arms to Libya following the 2011 Arab Spring.
Emails and other documents also suggest Greenhalgh and Farmakis arranged to supply weapons to Iran, Iraq and Syria in breach of arms embargoes, the prosecutor said.
The trial is due to conclude in June.