Gaddafi lawyer claims Dutch model is heir to Muatassim’s assets in Malta

A lawyer engaged by the widow of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has claimed that a Dutch glamour model is the wife of his slain son Muatassim Gaddafi.

The “infamously cruel” playboy son of Colonel Gaddafi died in the Battle of Sirte after being captured by anti-Gaddafi forces on 20 October, 2011, shortly before being executed along with his father. He was 36.

Now the Libyan Attorney General – one of the few executive offices that enjoys the recognition of both the Tobruk and Tripoli governments in strife-torn Libya – is trying to take ownership of Muatassim’s wealth held by two Maltese companies.

But Libya’s claims are being opposed by Safia Farkash Gaddafi, the 63-year-old widow now living in Oman with sons Hannibal and Mohammad, and daughter Aisha.

Safia Farkash’s lawyer, Harris Oikonomopoulos, is opposing the Attorney General’s claims to the “millions” that could be held under Muatassim’s companies Capital Resources and Mezen International, which at one point were managed in Malta by Joe Sammut, the former Labour Party treasurer.

Under Islamic law, she would be entitled to one-sixth of her son’s wealth, but she is under UN sanctions that froze an estimated €25 billion in state and personal assets she controlled.

In the proceedings before Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff, Oikonomopoulos also claimed that Muatassim Gaddafi had another heir: his hitherto unknown wife Lisa van Goinga and her son.

But Oikonomopoulos has so far presented no proof of marriage or paternity in court. Under Islamic law, van Goinga would be entitled to one-eighth of her alleged husband’s wealth; her son would inherit the lion’s share.

The claim remains unsubstantiated in court but raises questions over the presence of various Dutch models in Tripoli who were guests of Muatassim Gaddafi in the dying days of the regime.

In the mid-2000s, Goinga was married to Libyan national Tarek Kaituni, a man who was close to the Gaddafis; she left him for Matteo Marzotto, a senior executive at the Valentino and Marzotto fashion group.

There has been no reliable confirmation of the veracity of Oikonomopoulos’s claims. A request for comment to his office was not answered by the time of going to print.

But the lawyer has insisted in a Huffington Post blog he penned in September that Safia Farkash had entrusted him to “defend the future of her murdered son’s minor child and wife.”

Oikonomopoulos claims that Muatassim Gaddafi should be struck off the UN sanctions list because he is in fact dead. “Muatassim seems to remain, post mortem, a threat to international peace and security. His name is still on the list of the UN Security Council Resolution 1970 on Libya… for this reason, the family he created without time to enjoy it, has to endure poverty, in hiding, in anonymity, in constant risk of extinction,” he wrote in the HuffPost.

He also wrote of Safia Farkash’s “frustration, anger and embarrassment”, allegedly living on  “less than a thousand US dollars to spare” while still being presented as being worth billions.

But the Maltese government’s Sanctions Committee Monitoring Board has recently refused to unfreeze an undisclosed five-figure sum from Muatassim Gaddafi’s estate, so the family can pay legal costs.

“The fact that the UN Security Council is not automatically deleting a dead man’s name from a list of sanctions intended to protect international peace and security, while the [Maltese] government Sanctions Committee Monitoring Board refuses to two women and a minor child the means to protect their sole asset from a shady attempt of seizure, can be hardly considered to be a coincidence. Such a case shouldn’t require the attention of any court of law,” Oikonomopoulos wrote.

BOV credit for Muatassim

Muatassim Gaddafi was the sole shareholder in Capital Resources Ltd, set up in June 2010 by auditor Joe Sammut – who now stands accused of creating companies with false stocks for Libyan businessmen demanding Maltese residence – to hold all assets under Gaddafi’s assumed name Muatasimbllah Muammar Abuminyar.

Also registered at the same address as Capital Resources was Mezen International, the company in whose name Muatassim was issued with a Bank of Valletta Visa Platinum Card. In Malta, payments of €50,000 were effected in one single deposit to zero his maxed-out credit card.

Gaddafi’s BOV card statements, published by the Wall Street Journal, attest to his life of luxury and impulsive purchases. Thousands spent in city breaks at Dolce & Gabbana, Hermes, Emporio Armai and Versace outlets; picking up the €4,000 tabs at the Buddha Bar in New York or Tokyo’s Roppongi Chic; and spending €21,000 over four days for a Courchevel chalet, wining and dining.