That is the picture that is emerging in a court in Ontario, Canada, where the King’s personal luxury jet has been impounded in a business dispute over an alleged unpaid bill of US$3.5 million.
The King’s jet was attached
by the court in Canada in January 2015 while it was
in Goderich, Ontario, for routine maintenance. It has been held ever since.
Attachment
is a legal process by which a court
of law, at the request of a person who is owed money, requires property owned
by the person who owes the money to be transferred to the person who is owed
the money, or sold for the benefit of the person who is owed the money.
SG Air Leasing, the company allegedly owed the
money, told the Ontario Court of Appeal on 9 April 2015 that the jet had to be
attached and the case had to be resolved outside of Swaziland because no court
in Swaziland would hear a case against the King.
In papers presented to the court, King Mswati was
described as an ‘absolute monarch’.
The dispute involves the cost of renovating the
King’s McDonnell Douglas DC-9 jet (also known as an MD-87) in 2012. The Ontario
Court of Appeal was told that SG Air paid more than US$4.4 million for repairs
and modifications to the jet. The jet
itself had cost US$9.5 million.
SG Air said it paid the costs on behalf of
Inchatsavane, a company described as a ‘shell corporation’ set up by King
Mswati to purchase the jet. King Mswati was described as Inchatsavane’s ‘sole
shareholder’.
SG Air said the arrangement was for Inchatsavane to
repay it the money spent on repairs and modifications. When the King failed to
pay, private negotiations took place and allegedly the King agreed to pay
US$3.5 million in ‘full and final settlement’ of the debt.
When the King also failed to pay this money, SG Air
successfully applied for the courts in Canada to attach the jet and this was
done on 13 January 2015.
The Court of Appeal was told that under s11 of the Swaziland
Constitution the King was immune from any suit or
legal process ‘in any cause in respect of all things done or omitted to be done
by him’.
The Constitution was further reinforced by an
explicit practice directive issued by the Swazi Chief
Justice Michael Ramodibedi on 16 June 2011
which stated that immunity applied for any claims made indirectly against the
King.
SG Air said in court papers said it saw ‘no prospect
of any foreign judgement obtained against HMK [His Majesty the King] or
Inchatsavane being enforced by a court in Swaziland’.
The King’s representatives asked the court to
release the jet.
SG Air said in court papers that if the jet was
ready for flight and if it was released it would ‘depart immediately and SG Air
will have no prospect of enforcing a Canadian judgement against Inchatsavane in
Swaziland’.
The jet remains in Canada and the case continues in
the Court of Appeal. A further hearing is anticipated in May 2015.
See also
WHO
PAID FOR SWAZI KING’S JET
REVEALED:
COST OF FLYING KING’S JET
SWAZI
MPs CONFUSED OVER KING’S JET
REVEALED:
DETAILS OF KING’S NEW JET
KING'S
COMPANY AT CENTRE OF JET ROW
SWAZI
KING ‘REFUSED TO PAY JET DEBT’
SWAZI
KING’S JET HELD FOR UNPAID DEBTS
‘SWAZI
KING TO BUY US$44m PRIVATE JET’
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