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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, June 12, 2017
What links Brexit, dark money and a Saudi prince?
The UK's general election result has put claims of controversial Saudi Brexit funding back in the spotlight
Leader
of the Democratic Unionist Party Arlene Foster addresses journalists in
Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 9 June 2017 (REUTERS)
Saturday 10 June 2017
Theresa's May reliance on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to form a
government has prompted fresh calls for the Northern Irish party to
reveal the source of a controversial six-figure donation that supported
the campaign for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union (EU),
amid unverified claims the donation could be linked to figures in Saudi
Arabia's intelligence services.
The
role of the right-wing DUP has risen to prominence in UK after Prime
Minister Theresa May’s ruling Conservative Party failed to win a
majority in Thursday's general election. She now needs to rely on the
support of the Northern Irish party's 10 members of parliament to remain
in power.
The
£434,000 ($554,00) in pro-Brexit donations was given to the DUP by a
mysterious political organisation called the Constitutional Research
(CRC) Council, ahead of last June’s referendum on whether the UK should
stay in the EU or leave - dubbed the "Brexit" option.
More
than £280,000 ($375,000) was then used to buy a four-page advertising
supplement in the Metro freesheet newspaper in mainland Britain - it is
not distributed in Northern Ireland where the DUP operates - urging
readers to vote to leave the EU.
Northern Ireland's DUP has paid for a very expensive front page anti-EU ad on London's Metro. Unusual spending.
The
DUP's political opponents have questioned the original source of the
CRC donation amid concerns the donation may have breached rules set out
by the Electoral Commission, the UK regulator that governs donations and
elections.
The
CRC is chaired by Richard Cook, a former chair of the Conservative
Party in Scotland, and it has emerged that Cook founded a company in
2013 with Saudi Prince Nawwaf bin Adbul Aziz, according to documents at
Companies House.
Prince
Nawwaf, who died in 2015, was a former director general of the Saudi
government's intelligence agency and was the father of the current Saudi
ambassador to the UK, website Open Democracy reported. The company he
founded in 2013, Five Stars Investment, was dissolved in 2014.
Cook
is understood to have rejected the claims as "laughable," and there is
no evidence that the money was provided by Saudi intelligence.
The
identities of party donors are normally withheld in the Northern
Ireland under legislation dating from the Troubles, three decades of
nationalistic and sectarian conflict that ended in 1998, but the DUP
yielded to growing pressure in February when it revealed that the
donation came from CRC.
Electoral
Commission rules say that "regulated donees can only accept a donation
of more than £500 made to them in connection with their political
activities if it is from a 'permissible' donor'". Donations above that
amount "cannot be accepted" if a donor is impermissible or cannot be
identified.
Little
is known about the CRC, including its membership or who funds it. Cook
has previously said that after helping to fund Brexit, the
Constitutional Research Council now turn its attention to funding
efforts to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom.
Cook
is also reported to be close to Danish businessman Peter Haestrup, who
has repeatedly been linked to a gun-running case described by Indian
authorities as “the biggest crime in the country's history".
Haestrup has never been charged with any crimes linked to the case.
The
DUP has made no comment on the donation since the election, but last
month it said the donation from the CRC "complied fully" with Electoral
Commission requirements.
Last
month, Sir Jeffery Donaldson, who was the DUP's Brexit campaign
manager, told Irish media: "We are satisfied that the Constitutional
Research Council is a bona fide organisation and that has been confirmed
with the acceptance of the donation and the requirements."
He
added: "We are satisfied that the money has been raised in a legitimate
way and the Electoral Commission has accepted our return."
The UK government is due this
month to start negotiations with the EU on quitting the 28-country
grouping, in line with the referendum result.
Middle East Eye has contacted the DUP for comment.