India arrested seven men late last week on charges of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities against India. Among the seven was American “freedom fighter” Matthew Aaron VanDyke, who was accused of leading a group of Ukrainians to carry out a terrorist plot.
According to the Indian Express (IE), VanDyke was detained at Kolkata airport on Friday, three Ukrainians were detained at Lucknow airport and three more Ukrainians were detained at Delhi airport on the same day.
The men are currently in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
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Who is Matthew Aaron VanDyke?
Matthew Aaron VanDyke is a 45-year-old American who was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1981.
On his website, VanDyke said he completed his political science degree at the University of Maryland with a 4.0 GPA. After earning a master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service, he chose what he described as “a life of adventure.”
VanDyke’s website describes him as a “freedom fighter and prisoner of war in the Libyan civil war,” an “award-winning filmmaker” and an “Iraq-Afghanistan war correspondent.”
He also described himself as the founder of Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), the first non-profit military contracting firm, and an “international security analyst”.
VanDyke said on his website that he briefly worked as a war correspondent for The Baltimore Examiner newspaper in 2009. He claims to have also directed a documentary on Syria.
According to the website, VanDyke spent his 20s motorcycling across North Africa and the Middle East, joining “a group of rebels preparing to fight Gaddafi.”
When he was about 30 years old, his website says he was arrested by the then Gaddafi regime in Libya and held in prison for nearly six months, only to be released after rebel forces released prisoners who broke the lock on his cell.
He has about 5.84 thousand followers on X, where he claimed to have fought in Libya and Ukraine. He also claimed to be running covert operations in Venezuela.
His biography reads: “Free Iran”.
The profile picture on his X account is the same as the man in NIA custody, multiple officials confirmed to The Indian Express (IE).
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What is SOLI?
According to SOLI’s official website, the military contracting firm provides “free security consulting and training services to vulnerable populations to enable them to defend themselves against terrorist and insurgent groups.”
The website says he first gained international attention by training the Nineveh forces (a Christian militia in Iraq) to defend their villages against ISIS.
According to its website, SOLI provides “the training, support and resources necessary to liberate oppressed populations” and helps take action “in cases where the international community and governments have failed to help vulnerable populations facing security crises.”
Its self-proclaimed goal is to “combat the rise of extremist militancy by helping liberation movements before the cycle of violence breeds extremist ideologies.”
SOLI recruits US military veterans to consult and train local security forces, the website says, adding that it also recruits “experts from various fields for special consulting depending on the client’s needs.”
Why was Matthew Aaron VanDyke arrested?
Matthew Aaron VanDyke and six Ukrainians were charged with illegally entering restricted areas in Mizoram and crossing into Myanmar without permission.
They were also accused of training ethnic armed groups and brokering the delivery of drone shipments from Europe to insurgent-linked networks.
In its FIR, the NIA said the group crossed into Myanmar with the intention of conducting “pre-planned training for Myanmar-based Ethnic Armed Groups (EAGs)”.
All seven men were arrested under section 18 (punishment for participation in a terrorist conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), along with other relevant sections.
Who are EAGs?
According to the NIA, the Myanmar-based EAG is known to support insurgent organizations operating in India in “drone warfare, drone operations, assembly and jamming technology, etc., targeting the Myanmar junta”.
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Who are the six Ukrainians arrested with VanDyke?
The six Ukrainians arrested by the NIA were identified as:
- Hurba Petro
- Slyviak Taras
- Ivan Sukmanovsky
- Stefankiv Marian
- Honcharuk Maxim
- Kaminskyi Viktor
Ukraine lodged an official protest with the MEA, demanding their “immediate release” of its citizens and “unhindered consular access,” IE reported.
