ARAB-US RELATIONS - April 30 - Islamic Charity Head Charged With Perjury.Federal agents arrest Enaam M. Arnaout, a Syrian-born executive-director of a Chicago-based Islamic charity called the Benevolence International Foundation The Benevolence International Foundation (BIF) was a purported nonprofit charitable trust based in Saudi Arabia. It was a front for al-Qaeda and is now banned worldwide by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267. , charging him with perjury perjury (pûr`jərē), in criminal law, the act of willfully and knowingly stating a falsehood under oath or under affirmation in judicial or administrative proceedings. for lying in court documents this year when he claimed that the charity had no links with Al Qaida. The government says Arnaout had direct contacts with Bin Laden stretching back more than a decade, and also co-operated with Al Qaida operatives who were trying to acquire chemical and nuclear weapons. Federal agents say Bin Laden used Benevolence BENEVOLENCE, duty. The doing a kind action to another, from mere good will, without any legal obligation. It is a moral duty only, and it cannot be enforced by law. A good wan is benevolent to the poor, but no law can compel him to be so. BENEVOLENCE, English law. International's 10 offices worldwide to transfer money to Al Qaida associates. Al Qaida members would withdraw funds that were purportedly pur·port·ed adj. Assumed to be such; supposed: the purported author of the story. pur·port sent to build schools or provide food for the poor from bank accounts held by the charity, providing a legitimate cover for the movement of funds. The government also alleges that Arnaout assisted several Al Qaida operatives, including Mamdouh Salim, an Iraqi facing charges over bombing two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, Bin Laden's brother-in-law BROTHER-IN-LAW, domestic relat. The brother of a wife, or the husband of a sister. There is no relationship, in the former case, between the husband and the brother-in-law, nor in the latter, between the brother and the husband of the sister; there is only affinity between them. , who was tied to terrorist plots in the Philippines. The Justice Department spells out in detail the alleged links between Benevolence International, which raised $3.6m in 2001, and Al Qaida. The evidence is based on a series of unidentified witnesses, including former Al Qaida members and terrorists currently in US custody, as well as on documents seized seized (seised) n. 1) having ownership, commonly used in wills as "I give all the property of which I die seized as follows:...." 2) having taken possession of evidence for use in a criminal prosecution. 3) having taken property or a person by force. (See: seisin, seizure) in the group's offices in Chicago and Bosnia. (Before, Washington has faced sharp criticism for shutting down several large Muslim charities Muslim Charity is a registered charity in the United Kingdom, charity registration number 1078488. The charity was founded in 1999 by Shaykh Muhammad Imdad Hussain Pirzada to provide relief for the needy around the world. and launching raids on other groups without releasing any evidence backing those actions. Three of the charities - Benevolence International, Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation - filed lawsuits seeking release of assets seized by the government. While Washington has alleged that the Holy Land Foundation was the primary fundraiser for Hamas, it has also said that any direct evidence that the three charities were financing terrorism was based on classified intelligence that could not be divulged). |
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