Israeli ‘weapons trade’ suspect gone missing after Cyprus arrest

Police in Cyprus have lost track of an Israeli professor who was arrested on February 16 at Larnaca airport on suspicion of arms trafficking to Libya and China between 2015 and 2023.

Prior to his arrest, 56-year-old Gal Luft had an Interpol arrest warrant issued against him and was going to be extradited to the US.

However, after the Larnaca court ordered his conditional discharge, he disappeared. His whereabouts are currently unknown, Philenews reported.

Larnaca police spokesperson Haris Hadjiyiasemi on Wednesday said another European and international arrest warrant was issued against him.

In order to be conditionally discharged and avoid custody, Luft had to post bail for €150,000 and to report to the Paphos central police station at regular intervals.

The professor fulfilled the financial conditions and was released. However, on March 28 he failed to report to the police station and went missing.

Police are suspecting he escaped to the north from Pyla, near Larnaca. After his disappearance, police seized €250,000 from a guarantor Luft named before the Larnaca court ordered his release.

At the time of his arrest, the Israeli professor claimed the actions taken by the authorities against him were “politically motivated.”

“The US, claiming I’m an arms dealer. It would be funny if it weren’t tragic. I’ve never been an arms dealer,” Luft tweeted after his arrest.

Luft’s attorney Mordechai Tzivin also claimed his client’s arrest was politically motivated and an attempt to silence him for providing incriminating information in a corruption case allegedly involving Biden’s son, Hunter.

“The arrest came four years after Luft cooperated with FBI and Department of Justice investigators to help them with information about the case,” he was quoted as saying by Ynetnews. Tzivin was referring to a 2019 meeting in which the defence and energy expert allegedly gave incriminating information on the younger Biden.

He further claimed that his arrest is an effort by the Biden administration to silence him for cooperating with an investigation into the US president’s son’s business dealings.

“DOJ is trying to bury me to protect Joe, Jim and Hunter Biden,” the 56-year-old professor said, threatening to “name names”.

Luft, a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army and the executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) in Washington, was remanded in custody after he was found to have a US arrest warrant pending against him on charges of arms trafficking and fraud for offences that allegedly occurred from 2015 onward.

Luft has been publicly critical of US foreign policy, as well as the Biden administration as a whole, in the past. At a Beijing summit in 2021, titled International Forum for Democracy: Shared Human Values, Luft blamed the Biden administration’s commitment “to democracy on going only as far as its interests allow.”