ITV News has reported that a UAE-funded mercenary secretly surveilled a prominent British activist in London, in an operation associates feared could turn deadly. Abraham Golan, a former French Foreign Legion soldier who ran the private firm Spear Operations Group, arrived in the city in December 2016. Confidential Emirati records show he was on the UAE’s payroll throughout the operation.
The target was Anas Altikriti, a British hostage negotiator and chief executive of the Cordoba Foundation, a London think-tank the UAE had listed as a terrorist group in 2014 over perceived links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Golan built a surveillance file on Altikriti’s home, car, workplace and daily routes. He recruited a UK strategist, referred to as Victor, offering up to 100,000 pounds for help locating the target.
Victor told ITV News that at one meeting, Golan’s associate, a former US Navy SEAL, drew a finger across his throat while discussing Altikriti, which he took to mean the plot could turn lethal. Golan had earlier run a UAE-backed assassination programme in Yemen. Police later warned Altikriti his life may be under threat, without naming the source. Golan and the UAE embassies did not respond to the findings.
Source: ITV News
So What
This is an example of the grey zone at work. An allied state likely ran a hostile intelligence operation against a British citizen on British soil, then hid behind deniable contractors to keep its hands clean. The harder problem here is political, not legal. The UK likely knows more than it admits, but confronting a valued Gulf partner cuts against its own interests, and that gap is exactly where operations like this operate, and it is unlikely to close soon.
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