GLOBAL ASSETS:SQUATTERS IN London have occupied the luxury home of Libyan dictator Col Muammar Gadafy's son, Saif, in Hampstead. They have demanded that the £10 million (€11.6 million) property, which comes complete with a cinema, swimming pool and jacuzzi, be seized by the British government and handed over to the Libyan people today.
The group, named “Topple The Tyrants”, entered the property shortly before noon and on the roof unfurled a banner demanding “Out of London, Out of Libya”. A member of staff, who had arrived minutes after the squatters gained entry, had to be calmed down by police.
One squatter, who calls himself Montgomery Jones, said: “We want to make sure the property goes back into the hands of the Libyan people who deserve it. We’re here for a serious reason, we’re not here to luxuriate. I don’t think what we are doing is legal but I don’t think it’s relevant if you are talking about something this important.”
He said one of the first things they did on entering the house was switch the channel on the huge flat-screen television to al-Jazeera. “We do not trust the British government to return it [the house] to the people of Libya because they have a long history of helping the Gadafy regime.”
The eight-bedroom house, which is registered to a British Virgin Islands company and was bought without a mortgage, is reputed to be part of a £300 million property empire owned by the Gadafy family in London. It was for sale until last month, when it was withdrawn. It has since been offered for rent at £9,500 a week.
Chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne last week ordered a seizure of Gadafy-controlled assets held in the United Kingdom, but it is not clear whether the house was included.
Some quarters have alleged that Col Gadafy, his family and closest allies control £10 billion worth of assets in the UK, though Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, controls up to £80 billion globally.
Police, who are restricted in removing squatters if they have not damaged property on gaining entry, said they were treating the Hampstead occupation as a civil, not a criminal matter.