Feral Jundi

Monday, November 27, 2017

Legal News: The Entire AdvantFort Crew Found Not Guilty By Indian Court

Filed under: India,Legal News,Maritime Security — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 10:40 AM

Finally…. Man, what an incredibly exhausting and horrible experience for all of those involved. These men definitely suffered at the hands of a legal system in India that was out of control. These guys rotted in prison for four years and were initially given a sentence of five years back in January of 2016. They had been detained and in prison since 2013, so these guys have definitely been jerked around. Bravo to the friends and family as well as the legal teams and politicians that fought so hard to get them released.

These types of incidents are also a grim reminder of what can happen to security contractors out there. –Matt

 

 

‘Chennai Six’ former British soldiers released after four years in Indian jail
November 27, 2017
The “Chennai Six”, who  had all previously served in either the Parachute or Yorkshire Regiments, were acquitted on Monday and told by a judge to apply to get their passports returned, ending a long wait for them and their families in the UK.
Billy Irving, 37, Nick Dunn, 31, John Armstrong, 30, Nicholas Simpson, 47, Ray Tindall, 42, and Paul Towers, 54, were among 35 imprisoned in October 2013 while working as security on commercial ships to protect against pirates in the Indian Ocean.
They were jailed in 2013 along with 14 Estonian, 12 Indian and three Ukrainian colleagues when their vessel, the MV Seaman Guard Ohio, was boarded by the Indian Navy for entering its waters without permission. All the men worked for AdvanFort, a maritime security company.
Indian authorities found weapons and ammunition on board and the men were charged with possession of illegal firearms. Following an initial conviction the charges were quashed when the men argued they had the right permits and clearance for them as they were an anti-piracy unit.
But they they were later reconvicted when a lower court reinstated the charges, as the Indian justice system, both in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and nationally, moved their case between courts and judges.

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Saturday, October 31, 2015

Legal News: AdvantFort And The MV Seaman Guard Ohio Incident

Filed under: India,Legal News,Maritime Security — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 1:13 AM

In 2013, one of AdvanFort’s vessels, the MV Seaman Guard Ohio, was transporting its security guards between missions when it was boarded by Indian Police and its crew arrested on suspicion of illegally possessing weapons and illegally taking on fuel.
Two years on and the men, who have spent months in Indian jails and been barred from leaving the country as legal arguments flow back and forth, claim they have been left high and dry by their employer.
The men, who each earned about £3,000 a month, have not been paid since their arrest and AdvanFort has also failed to pay any of their mounting legal costs, according to Lisa Dunn, the sister of detainee Nick Dunn.
A recent hotel bill of about £12,000 was left unpaid by the firm.
“These men are dealing with the consequences for something they haven’t done,” Ms Dunn said.

This is another legal story that needs to get out there. These men have been rotting away in an Indian jail while the trials and politics keep driving this thing. It is ridiculous. What is also ridiculous is how horribly AdvantFort has handled this. (See the quote up top) I imagine the former contractors and family will be pursuing legal action against the company after India finally lets them go. –Matt

 

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Families of Britons facing Indian weapons charges speak out
19 October 2015
The families of British men facing trial in India on weapons charges have spoken out on the second anniversary of their arrest.
John Armstrong, from Wigton, Cumbria, and Nick Dunn, of Ashington, Northumberland, were among six Britons working as maritime security guards on a ship monitoring pirates.
The charges were dropped, but following an appeal by police the Indian Supreme Court ruled a trial must be staged.
It is due to begin shortly.
‘Remain positive’
The men were employed by American-based anti-piracy firm AdvanFort which charges clients up to £60,000 a time for armed guards to escort ships across a high-risk area between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea known as Pirate Alley.
The MV Seaman Guard Ohio was transporting its security guards between missions when it was boarded by police and its crew arrested on suspicion of illegally possessing weapons and illegally taking on fuel.
Mr Armstrong’s sister, Joanne Thomlinson, said: “We tried not to think about the second anniversary too much. I think it’s better to look forward and try to focus on the trial and remain positive.
“I don’t think we’ve got Christmas as a goal [for him to return home] in our heads. It’s difficult to put a timeframe on what’s happening.”
Mr Dunn’s sister, Lisa, told BBC Newcastle: “It affects us every single second of every single day and has done for two years.”

Story here.

AdvanFort accused of abandoning British men facing India trial
7 September 2015
AdvanFort is a maritime security firm that operates anti-piracy escorts in high risk areas
As six British maritime security guards prepare to face trial in India charged with illegal possession of weapons, the company they were working for is accused of abandoning them. But did AdvanFort put the men at risk of being arrested by breaching international laws?
AdvanFort is an American-based anti-piracy firm that charges clients up to £60,000 a time for armed guards to escort ships across a high-risk area between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea known as Pirate Alley.

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Sunday, December 2, 2012

India: Topsgrup Showing An Appetite For Risk

Filed under: India,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 10:15 PM

TOPSGRUP is a leading ISO 9001:2008 certified, Total Security Solutions group offering bespoke security and safety solutions to thousands of delighted customers across the world and employs over 93,000 trained human capital assets. TOPSGRUP offers a holistic approach to mitigating enterprise continuity risks across India and the United Kingdom and has ambitious plans of expanding to other corners of the world including Australia, Asia, China, Africa, Europe and USA. TOPSGRUP operates out of 120 offices around the world and is globally headquartered in London, United Kingdom. -from their brochure.


This is a great article on a company making some moves in the world of security. India’s Topsgrup is definitely growing, and ever since the Mumbai attack, private security has been a boom over there. For some background on the company, here is an older ‘company spotlight’ post that I did on them. –Matt

 

India’s Topsgrup: appetite for risk
November 23, 2012
by Neil Munshi
Not every company would be happy to have a prominent right-wing extremist on its roster of clients. But for Topsgrup, India’s largest private security company, Bal Thackeray – leader of the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena political party and one of the most powerful men in Mumbai before he died this month – was just an ordinary Joe.
Thackeray, a man who in life – and, it turned out, in death – could pack the streets with fanatical multitudes at short notice, entrusted his travel in his waning days to ambulances provided by Topsgrup.
He was one among the company’s 8,000 private and corporate clients, which include other leaders of India’s elite and many of its biggest companies such as the Tata Group, ICICI Bank and the Times of India. Topsgrup also provides security at events including Indian Premiere League cricket matches. In July, it completed a £19.5m acquisition of the Shield Guarding Company of the UK, in which it bought a 51 per cent stake in 2008.

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Maritime Security: Piracy Plunges As More Ships Start Carrying Armed Guards

Filed under: India,Italy,Letter Of Marque,Maritime Security — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 9:28 PM

“In 2011, the numbers of private armed security teams went up significantly and that has been a big game-changer as well, though not the only factor,” Olive said. “If that pressure is taken off it can all start to be unpicked relatively rapidly,” he added, referring to industry and military measures to combat piracy.

It’s nice to see some recognition going towards the efforts of armed security out there. They have been a ‘big game-changer’ and the statistics speak for themselves.

Although one looming iceberg that can really mangle the record of private armed guards are shootings that result in innocent people being killed. I have to imagine that we will see private maritime security industry involved in such a thing, and an example of how that might turn out can be seen with the shooting accident that happened last February between some Italian Marine vessel protection guards and an Indian fishing vessel.

In that accident, one innocent person was killed, and it is the type of deal that has been all over the news in both India and Italy. This kind of international incident would literally destroy a security company and absolutely embarrass the client. But it would also be the kind of incident that would put some extreme negative attention on the maritime security industry as a whole. The question is how do you prevent something like that from happening, and can you?

Logically speaking, it is bound to happen. So the prudent thing for companies is to actually prepare your legal strategic defense for such an event. To study how this specific event between the Italians and Indians, and learn from it to get a good game plan together. Of course you always want to refine your rules of engagement and enforce it with training and good management/leadership, but in the realm of combat, unfortunate things happen and companies must be prepared.

One final point is the use of the Letter of Marque (LoM) or a similar licensing system. This could be used as a form of protection for those armed guards on the high seas. If the ship’s captain carries a LoM for that vessel, issued by the same state the vessel is flagged under, then in that case the state can identify through that license what they are legally willing to support when it comes to the defense of that vessel. Under the terms of the LoM, you can list all sorts of requirements of the vessel’s protection team, and you can write up legal protections for that team and vessel.

The main point of this type of LoM is to get the state back into the game of regulating armed force on these vessels and provide some kind of legal protections and accountability. If states are willing to put their flag on a vessel, then why not go the whole way and allow them to issue a LoM or similar license for this kind of ‘warfare on the high seas’? –Matt

 

Piracy plunges as more ships start carrying armed guards
November 30, 2012
By Michelle Wiese Bockmann
Pirate attacks on merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean fell 81 per cent this year as the use of armed security guards on ships acted as a “game-changer,” according to the European Union’s naval force.
There were 34 attacks by Somali pirates, with five vessels hijacked so far in 2012, compared to a record 176 assaults in the whole of last year that resulted in 25 ships seized for ransom, according to Peter Olive, the EU Naval Force’s chief of staff.
Ransom payments to Somali pirates totaled $36 million so far this year, compared with $147 million last year, he said Thursday at a briefing at the EU’s naval force headquarters at Northwood, England. As well as more aggressive military operations, the increasing deployment of private guards over the last 18 months on vessels transiting high-risk areas contributed to the declines, Olive said.
“In 2011, the numbers of private armed security teams went up significantly and that has been a big game-changer as well, though not the only factor,” Olive said. “If that pressure is taken off it can all start to be unpicked relatively rapidly,” he added, referring to industry and military measures to combat piracy.

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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Bounties: US Offers $10 Million Bounty For 2008 Mumbai Terrorist– Haviz Mohammad Saeed

Filed under: Bounties,India,Pakistan — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 2:19 PM

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Tuesday the bounty on Saeed is about “justice being done” and that there should be no impunity for those who kill Americans overseas. She emphasized that the reward was not just for information leading to Saeed’s arrest, but also for information leading to his conviction.

Man, let’s get this guy. This is also a great way to snub Pakistan (again, because they deserve it for hiding Bin Laden all of these years and supporting the Taliban) and show some support for India (who does deserve our support and would tick off Pakistan), by helping to nab this guy.  He has been pretty open in Pakistan and so he shouldn’t be hard to find.

What is key with this bounty though, is that the US wants information that will lead to his location and arrest/conviction. So you might be able to locate him, but in order to get the full amount, I think we want a little bit more. I would say information leading to arrest and conviction would be far more valuable in this deal and would probably give that tipster the full amount.

But of course this whole bounty program is a contradiction in terms. By all intents and purposes, this is a bounty.  According to the Rewards for Justice FAQ, bounty hunting is not prohibited with this deal though. So could a company find the guy and get all of the juice on him, and then find some random person to be the ‘lone individual’ to report the whole thing?  I don’t get that.

By offering a reward, aren’t you encouraging bounty hunters?

We strongly discourage bounty hunters and other non-government individuals from pursuing the capture of terrorists; instead, RFJ provides rewards for information that will enable appropriate government authorities to locate and apprehend such individuals.

To me, the DoS should be up front and purposeful about promoting bounty hunting. It is a form of offense industry that if properly constructed, will definitely produce results. At this time, their Rewards For Justice program is terribly inefficient and poorly set up.

They should be reaching out to all and any parties/groups/individuals/companies, and providing a set of rules and licenses in order for them to do what they need to do to find these folks. Issue a Letter of Marque and Reprisal–with an emphasis on ‘reprisal’ and tell these folks to get bonded, and then let them hunt. Matter of fact, let hundreds of groups go hunting, all being innovative and motivated, and turn ol’ Haviz Mohammad Saeed and others like him into a prize. But that would first require the DoS and governments to stop demonizing bounty hunters and utility….. –Matt

 

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the leader of a banned Islamic group Jamaat-ud-Dawa is seen during an anti-Indian rally to show solidarity with Indian Kashmiris, in Lahore, Pakistan, February 5, 2010.

 

Wanted : Information leading to the arrest and conviction of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed –Up to $10 Million
Place of Birth : Sargodha, Punjab Province, Pakistan
Date of Birth : 06/05/1950
Sex : Male
Hair : Red
Eyes : Brown
Nationality : Pakistani
Citizenship : Pakistan
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed is a former professor of Arabic and Engineering, as well as the founding member of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a radical Deobandi Islamist organization dedicated to installing Islamist rule over parts of India and Pakistan, and its military branch, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. Saeed is suspected of masterminding numerous terrorist attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 166 people, including six American citizens.
The Republic of India has issued an Interpol Red Corner Notice against Saeed for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Additionally, the United States Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated National under Executive Order 13224.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in December 2001. In April 2008, the United States designated Jamaat-ud-Dawa as a Foreign Terrorist Organization; similarly, the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa a terrorist organization in December 2008.
Link to Rewards for Justice bounty here.
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US Offers $10 Million Bounty for 2008 Mumbai Terror Suspect
April 03, 2012
The United States is offering a bounty of up to $10 million for the Pakistani man accused of masterminding the deadly 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.?The State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” website on late Monday announced the reward for information leading to Hafiz Mohammad Saeed’s capture and conviction. The reward is the second highest bounty offered by the U.S.

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