Lobbying firm GJW is working for the Libyan government in a bid to fight
further sanctions, it emerged this week.
The work is being handled through a separate company - GJW International
- set up in June. GJW Holdings, the parent company of GJW Government
Relations, is the major shareholder along with Zainab Tawdrous, a PR
consultant specialising in the Middle East. At least two other lobbying
firms are understood to have been approached to work for the Libyans in
May of this year. Both turned it down.
Last week GJW co-founder Andrew Gifford, who is also chairman of
lobbyists’ industry body the APPC, told PR Week that the firm had, on
its own initiative set up a lobbying group comprising around a dozen UK
companies trading in Libya. The aim, he said, was to protect upwards of
pounds 180 million worth of British exports to Libya from the threat of
tougher sanctions.
Current UN sanctions - imposed in 1992 because of Libya’s failure to
hand over suspects in the Lockerbie bombing - are restricted to the arms
and airline industries and to the supply of equipment for the oil
industry.
Asked whether the Libyan government was funding the group, Gifford was
vague. Later he called to clarify that the firm did have a separate
contract with the Libyan government for ‘monitoring and advice’ via a
Libyan-owned bank.
The DTI confirmed this week that GJW is not breaking any sanctions by
working for the Libyan government.
