Swaziland parliamentarians are misleading themselves
about the impounding of King Mswati III’s private jet by a court in Canada in a
dispute over alleged unpaid bills.
They think it is an attack on Swaziland’s sovereignty,
so the Swazi House of Assembly has decided
to petition the Government of Canada to get the plane
released.
Members
of Parliament said the attached plane was a ‘state aircraft’ and
enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
They also said the King’s dignity had been let down by the
situation.
In fact, the plane was attached by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
in Canada in what is a relatively straight-forward, but disputed, business
deal.
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.
The plane is legally owned not by the Kingdom of Swaziland but by a
company called Inchatsavane Company (Pty) Ltd. The company is a legal entity in
its own right. In the Sale and Purchase agreement for the McDonnell Douglas
DC-9-87 aircraft dated 18 April 2012, Inchatsavane is given as the purchaser
and King Mswati’s name appears on the document as ‘sole shareholder / owner’ of
the company.
Inchatsavane might be seen as the ‘King’s company’ in Swaziland, but in
international law it is a company like any other.
In the Sale and Purchase Agreement, Inchatsavane is described as a
‘limited company formed under the law of Swaziland under certification of
incorporation No 581 of 2010.’
The company’s office address is given as ‘1st Floor, Ellerines
Building, Swazi Plaza, [Mbabane], Swaziland.’
The plane was attached in Canada in December 2014 in a dispute over an
unpaid bill. The background to the dispute is that after Inchatsavane bought
the jet for US$9.5 million in 2012, the King required refurbishments to be made
to the interior. The cost of repairs and modifications was at least US$4.1 million.
At the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Canada, a company called SG
Air said it paid the invoices for the refurbishments on behalf of Inchatsavane,
expecting Inchatsavane to repay it the money.
SG Air said this money was not repaid.
The Ontario court was told that on 13 November 2014, King Mswati agreed
to pay US$3.5 million as ‘full and final settlement’ of the costs owed by
Inchatsavane.
The court was also told that by 16 December 2014 the funds had not been
paid either by Inchatsavane or King Mswati and so the attachment of the
aircraft was sought.
The claim in the court was against Inchatsavane and not King Mswati. The
King was not present when the plane was taken by the courts; it was in Canada
for routine maintenance.
State sovereign immunity does not apply in the case as the dispute is a
commercial dispute between two companies. The Kingdom of Swaziland is not
legally involved in the case.
The plane remains attached by the court, pending a
further hearing.
See also
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’
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/04/swazi-king-to-buy-44m-private-jet.html
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