Israeli professor who escaped Cyprus resurfaces

Gal Luft, the Israeli professor who skipped bail in Cyprus while facing extradition to the United States where he is wanted for arms trafficking, has resurfaced, telling the New York Post he had to flee to avoid what he calls political persecution.

On May 31, the New York Post ran a long article featuring quotes from Gal Luft, who contacted the newspaper from an “undisclosed location.”

Luft denies the US allegations, which include five charges relating to the Arms Export Control Act of conspiring to sell Chinese products to the United Arab Emirates, Kenya and Libya, as well as a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and of making a false statement.

He claims he was forced to skip bail because he is the victim of a political persecution by the United States to protect US President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and brother Jim.

“The chances of me getting a fair trial in Washington are virtually zero,” he told the New York Post in a call from an undisclosed foreign country, explaining why he skipped bail. “I had to do what I had to do.”

He would not say how he escaped Cyprus because “I don’t want to get people in trouble.”

“I was charged for a thought crime,” he said of the gun-running allegations, which date from email correspondence five years ago.

“I was asked by a bona fide arms dealer, an Israeli friend, to inquire with a company I knew if they had an item and what would be the price of an item. This is where the conspiracy ended. No follow-up, no money, no brokering activity.”

In March 2019, Luft met with four FBI officials and two Department of Justice prosecutors at the US Embassy in Brussels to provide information that Chinese state-controlled energy company CEFC had paid $100,000 a month to Hunter Biden and $65,000 to his uncle Jim, in exchange for their FBI connections and use of the Biden name to promote China’s Belt and Road Initiative around the world.

Luft claims everything he told US officials was “corroborated” nine months later, when the FBI subpoenaed Hunter’s laptop from a Delaware computer repair shop where he had abandoned it.

According to the New York Post, “Despite the bombshell allegations Luft made in Brussels, he never heard from the FBI or prosecutors again until he was arrested in Cyprus.”

Luft was arrested at Larnaca airport on February 16.

The 56-year-old had an Interpol arrest warrant issued against him and was going to be extradited to the United States.

However, after a Larnaca court ordered his conditional discharge, he disappeared.

He posted bail, but on March 28 he failed to report to the police station and went missing.