A Canadian court has ordered the Swazi government's VIP MD-87 impounded for the second time in two years.
Reuters reports Singaporean businessman Shanmuga Rethenam, a former business partner of Swazi king Mswati III, secured the seizure order from a Toronto court in his latest attempt at recovering USD8 million he says he is owed.
3DC-SWZ (msn 53041), which was undergoing maintenance at an undisclosed location in Canada, has now been confined to the province of Ontario pending the outcome of the case.
Rethenam says he sold Mswati the aircraft in 2010 and then paid for modifications and refinancing totaling nearly USD6.5 million. A previous seizure order effected on the aircraft last year saw Mswati paying USD3.5 million to secure its release.
Rethenam has obtained a "worldwide freezing order" from a judge in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), where his aviation firm is registered. The order has also sought to freeze some of the king's foreign assets while that case is decided.
Meanwhile, a Swazi court has charged the Singaporean with misappropriating funds while he operated a Swazi mining venture with Mswati between 2011 and 2014. Rethenam claims the timing of the new case is suspicious and is Mswati's way of attempting to 'retaliate' against him.
It is recalled that the Swazi government recently acquired A340-300 B-18802 (cn 406) from China Airlines (CI, Taipei Taoyuan) to replace the MD-87 which, it says, is ill suited to longhaul operations.
