Chancellor orders terror asset freeze
A man suspected of helping to finance insurgency activity in Iraq has had his assets frozen.
Chancellor Gordon Brown today followed America’s lead in ordering the Bank of England to freeze the UK assets of Syrian, Sulayman Khalid Darwsih.
The Bush administration claims that he provided support to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who they believe is leading Al-Qaeda insurgency activities in Iraq.
US Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, said: “Identifying financial operatives and choking off the flow of blood money moves us closer to our ultimate goal of fracturing the financial backbone of the Iraqi insurgency and Al Qaeda.”
He also urged all UN members to follow suit.
The Treasury took the action because it had “reasonable grounds for suspecting that Sulayman Darwish meets the test under the Al Qa’ida and the Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2002 and the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001.”
This means that it is now a criminal offence for any financial institution in the UK to hold or facilitate funds held by Mr Darwish.
The action comes only four days before the Iraqi elections as violence in the country continued unabated.
