Press Release
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The Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue foundation expressed concern that witnesses to the case of the financing of Doha Bank, which has branches in London, for terrorist groups in Syria, were intimidated by Qatari officials as the British courts heard the case.
Qatar is violating fair trial procedures and threatening human rights around the world by funding terrorist groups, harboring islamic extremist organizations, implicating a number of its citizens in financing terrorism and putting them on terrorist lists, the forum stated. The British judiciary has launched an investigation into the intimidation of four Syrian refugees accused in theDoha Bank case, which is accused of financing Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, and that these harassments have taken on various forms such as pressure, illegal covert surveillance abroad, threats from gunmen and masked men at night, and attempted bribery.”Witnesses had told the court that Qatar had used Doha Bank to transfer funds to the
terrorist group in Syria, a banned organization in the United Kingdom, but the bank denied any wrong doing,andthe British press reported that four of theplaintiffs had effectively withdrawn from the case, due to continuing threats by Qatari officials.Qatar’s actions against witnesses in this case confirm its determination to conceal evidence of its conviction for financing terrorist groups, which means that it is in violation of the International Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing issued by UN General Assembly Resolution 54/109,dated December 9, 1999, issued on 1 January, 2000, in its preambles, affirmed its condemnation of all acts of terrorism, its methods and practices, as unjustifiable criminal acts, whereverthey are committed and whatever the perpetrators, including those that endanger friendly relations between states and peoples and threaten the territorial integrity and security of states.
Paragraph 3(f) of General Assembly Resolution51/210 of December17,1996, in which theAssembly requested all states to take steps, by appropriate internal means, to prevent and prevent the financing of terrorists and terrorist organizations, whether directly or indirectly through organizations with objectives Charitable, social, cultural or alleged, or also engaged in illegal activities such as illegal arms and drug trafficking and extortion of funds, including the exploitation of persons for the purposes of financing terrorist activities, and, if the case warrants, consider, in particular regulatory measures to prevent and counter the movement of funds suspected of terrorist purposes.The international legislature also committed Member States, by limiting the flow of funds to terrorists, to address the threat of
terrorist financing domestically and globally to deprive terrorist networks of funding and safe haven, by strengthening their financial and intelligence legal, law enforcement and judicial capabilities to combat terrorist financing to meet the challenges posed by terrorist financing from a serious threat, by better protecting financial systems against abuse by terrorist financiers anywhere in the world.Qatar has a long record ofnot implementing UN resolutions, most notably resolution 2368 of 2017 on ISIL, al-Qaeda and all persons, groups, projects and associated entities, and emphasizes the need for measures on asset freezes, travel bans and armsembargoes, also sets the criteria for listingpersons and entities associated with these terrorist organizations and emphasizes the importance of combating money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons.In addition to UN Resolution 2178 of September 2015, which prohibits the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq through Turkish territory, resolution 2170 on drying up sources of support, material, military and logistical funding for extremists, particularly ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra, a number of those arrested in Syria have admitted funding Qatar for theiractivities.
Accordingly, Qatar violated an important principle in the UN counter-terrorism strategy, which stated that “terrorist acts, methods and practices in all their forms and manifestations are activities aimed at undermining human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy, threatening the territorial integrity and security of States, destabilizing legitimately formed Governments, and that the international community should take the necessary steps to strengthen cooperation to prevent and combat terrorism.Qatar ignores the rules of international humanitarian law in dealing with terrorism, continuing to support the Muslim Brotherhood, which is onthe list ofterrorist groups in countries such as Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain as a terrorist group, and most recently, after reviewing multiple evidence, Britain designated the “Hassam” and “Revolutionary Brigade” groups associated with the Brotherhood as terrorist movements and banned their activities, as well as the recognition of Osama bin Laden and abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a former ideologue of theBrotherhood.The Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue Foundation calls upon the international community to take serious action towards criminalizing Qatar’s financing of terrorist groups and monitoring their economic activities, which are used as a cover to finance terrorism for crimes against humanity, violation of all UN resolutions and endangering the lives of civilians around the world because of the crimes of those groups that violate the right to life.
