#FAKE: Did Sky News pay hunters to act as arms traffickers?

Je nám líto, tato položka je k dispozici pouze v English For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

This report presented by British TV station Sky News, suggesting that Romania is the scene of a traffic arms, seems to be a fake!

Sky News broadcasted on 7th of August material made by Stuart Ramsay on arms dealers in Romania with these words:

Eastern European gangs tell Sky News they’ll sell automatic weapons, like AK-47s, to anyone – including terrorists.”  Our Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay travelled to Romania to meet the gun dealers who claim to control thousands of weapons.

According to Stirile ProTVRomania the so called gun smugglers were arrested by Romanian police. They are hunters, the guns were legally-held, and they state that they recieved money to play trafficers of arms.

Prosecutors of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) ordered the initiation of criminal proceedings and detention for a period of 24 hours for the three hunters who acted as weapon smugglers.

One defendant said on Wednesday (10th of August), after being heard at DIOCT, he had been fooled by the journalists. He said he was lied to, as he believed that it would be a documentary which shows the risks one faces with weapons trafficking. He was told broadcasting would be in December, noting at the end that people appearing in the documentary were fictitious.

He added that journalists from Sky asked that people who appear in the documentary to be ” more real ” to be masked and wearing military uniforms. He said that all the weapons that appear in the material Sky News are legally registered, not subject to smuggling and were not sold and were not loaded at the time of the shooting.

Since the British journalists requested to be given military weapons trademark AK one of the defendants asked another person to lend him a gun (UM Sadu cal.7,62X39 ) of his collection. Although the gun was owned legally, the owner was not entitled, according to the law to transport it ouf of his home or to borrow it to other people.

It was a team of four journalists from Sky News, including Stuart Ramsay. Ramsay’s, whose credibility falters at this point, is Sky News Chief Correspondent. He conveyed in many areas of conflict, conducted exclusive interviews with jihadists in Britain, a series of stories about drug cartels in Mexico and was awarded many times for his professional activity, was including a BAFTA nominee for materials the violent protests in Egypt 2011.

He wrote on Twitter that the story is real, that the weapons are real and nobody has been paid.

How this scandal will end, given that the country’s image has been badly affected and following accusations will remain, we will have to see.

The fact is that the Romanian ambassador to the UK said it will require all institutions in the necessary rectifications and punish those involved in this farce.

Romanian ambassador:  “They want public apology and it was clear from the start that it is a fake.”

When you look at the rifles the fake is more plausible than what Stuart Ramsey and Sky News say. The rifle shown at 02:19 is a very new STEYR MANNLICHER CL II SX, a repeating rifle for hunting which costs in Germany 1600 €. The scope seems to be a ZEISS Duralyth 2-8×42 or new Conquest, a hunting scope with illuminated reticle which costs more than 1.100 €. The Mount and gunshop work of fitting an zero-in cost another 500 €. So all in all this hunting rifle costs more than 3000 € without shipping. The rifle and the scope have serial nos. You can trace them back to Austria (STEYR) and Germany (ZEISS). NO TERRORIST WANTS TO BUY THIS GUN. They want small pistols or cheap full automatic rifles which cannot be traced back.

We never saw terrorists who were interested in repeating rifles and shotguns suitable for hunting – only in full automatic rifles. The “documentary” did not show any “material of war”, only usual arms hunters, target shooters and collectors are able to buy, which are registered and cannot be sold without a national permit.

We therefore approve that the Romanian authorities will proceed to summon the British journalists for a hearing on the issues listed above, with the theme provisions of criminal procedure and the law on international judicial cooperation.

The action was carried out together with the Romanian Police. Specialized support was provided by the Directorate of Special Operations. Specialized support was provided by the Romanian Intelligence Service. The action was carried out with the support of the Gendarmerie Special Intervention Brigade – Vlad Tepes

Read more here:  DIOCT – The story behind reportage Sky News (translated in English)

One Comment on “#FAKE: Did Sky News pay hunters to act as arms traffickers?”

  1. Hello, I am a hunter and weapons collector from the same City(Targu Mures), where Stuart Ramsay checked in and met with our fake gun dealers. The reporter payed 2000Euros(or pounds, I am not shure) to the now arrested “dealers” and also prepared the texts they had to say(they don’t speak english)… The “dealers” are legal hunters and gun owners, belonging to the hungarian minority in our area. This may be some explanation why they didn’t care for the damage they did to our country’s image in Europe. They own some businesses here, so the money could not have been the main reason. The weapons owners are really thorough and often controlled in our area, the hunters and gun owners know each other(common passion unites people…) so the chances to avoid here the gun law are slim to none.
    I can tell you how they checked me: one day I got a phone call from my wife that a police agent is in front of my house. He called me directly and told me that he has to check my weapons safe and it’s content. I told him that I will get home in 2 hours and he should come back(according to the law, only I am allowed to have acces to the safe keys). What he did? He parked his police car in front of the house and waited there until I got home… So the controlls are not a joke here, and you newer know when they will call.

Leave a Reply