By Lodu William Odiya
A new report has exposed activist, Peter Biar Ajak’s accomplices in the alleged arms purchase for regime change in South Sudan.
According to Bloomberg report, Ajak was introduced by a legendary Russian Chess player, Garry Kasparov to an American financier to source weapons for arming rebels.
Report emphasized that the grandmaster is said to have introduced the former activist to the US financier who unknowingly funded the plan to procure weapons.
Mr. Ajak, a Harvard fellow and exiled South Sudanese activist’s alleged plot emerged from the US prosecution.
The report said he pleaded not guilty, but now facing federais charges of conspiring to illegally export arms to South Sudan.
Bloomberg revealed that Mr. Ajak who allegedly wanted to buy AK-47s and Stinger missiles to topple the government, lacked the cash to put his plan in motion.
However, the report also noted that he received $7 million from Robert Granieri, a co-founder of the Jane Street trading firm, further adding that Granieri insisted that he was “duped” into funding the coup plot, with his lawyer claiming that the financier thought the money would be used to support human rights activism.
The chess grandmaster met Ajak during his tenure as chair of the Human Rights Foundation.
The report noted, Kasparov neither confirmed nor denied his involvement, telling Bloomberg via his spokesperson: “My record and my values are clear, and they remain unchanged. I have spent much of my life standing up for civil rights and promoting democracy around the world.” Neither Kasparov nor Granieri is facing charges” report read.
As alleged, the defendants sought to unlawfully smuggle heavy weapons and ammunition from the United States into South Sudan, a country that is subject to a U.N. arms embargo due to the violence between armed groups, which had killed and displaced thousands.
Peter Biar Ajak fled to the U.S. with the help of the American government after he said South Sudan’s president ordered him abducted or killed.
South Sudan was embroiled in a multi-sided civil war from 2013 to 2020, with factional conflicts still a major source of instability. The clashes have been accompanied by a humanitarian disaster, numerous atrocities, ethnic cleansings, and mass deportations.