http://www.smh.com.au/world/australian-helped-gaddafis-son-flee-20111030-1mqe7.html
Australian helped Gaddafi's son flee
October 31, 2011
Saadi Gaddafi. Photo: Reuters
A FORMER Australian soldier working as a private security contractor has admitted he helped late leader Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saadi, flee Libya last month as rebel forces took over Tripoli.
Saadi's long-time bodyguard, Gary Peters, told Canada's National Post that he was part of a team that drove Colonel Gaddafi's third son across Libya's southern border to Niger.
Mr Peters, who has permanent resident status in Canada, returned to Toronto in September, suffering from an untreated bullet wound to his left shoulder when the convoy was ambushed after crossing back into Libya.
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''I'm not a mercenary,'' he told the Post, which said his account had been verified by several sources.
''I work for a person in particular, have done for years, for close protection. When we go overseas, I don't fight. That's what a mercenary does. Defend? Yes. Shoot? Yes. But for defence, for my boss, and that's what happened. The convoy got attacked and two of us got hit.''
Mr Peters said he had provided security services to Gaddafi family members since 2004. Though he worked mostly for Saadi, he also guarded the other sons, Seif al-Islam and Hannibal, and said he had escorted Hannibal and his sister Aisha to Algeria in a convoy.
Mr Peters said he first met Saadi while serving in the Australian Army when he was assigned to protect Saadi at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
After moving to Canada in 2002, Mr Peters said he worked for a time for security contractor Blackwater USA, which was barred from Iraq over a 2007 shooting.
Although Canada has enacted UN sanctions imposing an arms embargo on Libya, and frozen the assets of Saadi and other Gaddafi family members, Mr Peters has not been charged with a crime. ''I broke no laws,'' he said. ''But they have to investigate, which is fine.''
Mr Peters, who said he had spoken to Saadi by telephone since returning to Canada and planned to return to Niger this weekend, defended his boss.
''If he was a mass murderer, then obviously I wouldn't work for him,'' he said. ''The man's a gentleman, non-violent.''
According to Mr Peters, other members of Saadi's security team were from Australia, New Zealand, Iraq and Russia. He said they had all previously served as special forces.
He warned that the fight in Libya was far from over. ''Don't believe it's going to settle down, because there are still three brothers there that are very, very angry. And three brothers that have a lot of money,'' he said.
''And they've still got that money. We just purchased, brand-new, three Land Rovers, bullet-proof. We paid cash for it. That means there's money around.''
AFP
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/australian-helped-gaddafis-son-flee-20111030-1mqe7.html#ixzz1cOzKz6e9
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