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German Police Officers Secretly Trained Libyan Forces

Some 30 officers from elite police units and the armed forces in Germany are under investigation over allegations they secretly trained Libyan security forces on their own time and without permission.

REUTERS

Former members of the elite GSG-9 police force are accused of secretly training Libyan forces.

More than 30 German elite police officers and soldiers are under investigation over allegations they trained Libyan security forces on their own account -- and without permission from their superiors.

According to a report in the Friday edition of the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, around 30 officers from across Germany carried out or organized training courses in Libya.

Eight police officers in North Rhine-Westphalia are under investigation, accused of breaching secrecy regulations, the state's Interior Minister Ingo Wolf said Thursday. Disciplinary proceedings have been instigated against all eight officers, who went to Libya in their free time without the knowledge of their superiors. "The conduct of the officers is completely unacceptable," Wolf said. According to a report in the German regional newspaper Westfalen-Blatt Friday, the officers have already been transferred from elite SWAT-style units to normal police duties.

According to the media reports, former officers of the elite anti-terrorism GSG-9 police force had founded a private security company and hired police officers from the German equivalent of SWAT units on a freelance basis. The special police forces officers reportedly went to Libya in 2006 and trained security forces on behalf of the private security company. The officers were paid up to €15,000 for their efforts.

A spokesman for the German Interior Ministry told the news agency DPA that active members of the GSG-9 "are not involved, to our knowledge." The German Defence Ministry told the Associated Press that a member of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, was being investigated.

Police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia received a tip-off about the activities of the officers in June 2007. The state's Interior Ministry gave the Dusseldorf police force the task of conducting an investigation. A spokesperson for the state's Interior Ministry said it was unclear exactly which security forces had been trained in Libya.

Libya has been criticized by non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International for human rights abuses, although its leader, Moammar Gadhafi, has taken a more pro-Western course in recent years and has rejected terrorism. According to the Amnesty International 2007 annual report, Libyan police shot 12 demonstrators on just one day.

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