Egypt Charges Saudi Preacher with Money Laundering
Asharq Al-Awsat 22/04/2010
By Turki Al-Saheil and Mohamed Ahmed and Mohamed Fathi Younis
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=20686
Riyadh, Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- In what represents a judicial precedent, the
Egyptian Public Prosecution has charged a Saudi preacher who is allegedly a
member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization with money laundering
and raising funds abroad, along with 4 other Egyptians.
According to the details revealed by the Egyptian Public Prosecution, 4
Egyptians and 1 Saudi Arabian have been charged. The Public Prosecution did
not reveal information about the Saudi citizen, who is Saudi Arabian
preacher Awad Mohamed al-Qarni who the Egyptians previously accused of being
a member of the outlawed organization a few months ago before dropping the
charges. Saudi preacher Awad Mohamed al-Qarni is not to be confused with his
namesake the more famous Saudi preacher Dr. Aaidh al-Qarni.
Egyptian Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud yesterday issued the order
to charge the 5 alleged members of the Muslim Brotherhood International
organization with money laundering and raising funds abroad for an outlawed
group, and for their case to be transferred to the Egyptian State Security
Emergency Court.
The defendants are listed as; Assistant Secretary-General of the Egyptian
Medical Syndicate Dr. Ashraf Abdel-Ghafer, as well as Islamic preacher
Sheikh Abdul Hamid Ghoneim, Saudi Arabian preacher Awad Mohamed al-Qarni,
Ibrahim Munir Mustafa, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sabah
Bureau De Change Dr. Osama Mohamed Suleiman. The latter four have been
charged in absentia and are listed as fugitives.
This is the first time in Egyptian legal history that a Saudi preacher has
been charged with financing the Muslim Brotherhood which is outlawed
throughout Egypt.
Saudi preacher Awad al-Qarni told Asharq Al-Awsat that the charges made
against him by the Egyptian Public Prosecution are "fabricated." He added "I
emphatically and unequivocally stress that these accusations are completely
unfounded, and I challenge the Egyptian security services to provide a
single piece of evidence on the veracity of what they claim."
He said that the charges made against him are like the accusations
previously made against him by the Egyptians a few months ago and which were
dropped after just one week.
As for whether he intends to engage Egyptian lawyers to defend him at the
Egyptian State Security Emergency Court, or whether he will use a lawyer
provided by the Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi preacher Awad al-Qarni told Asharq
Al-Awsat "firstly, with all respect to the Muslim Brotherhood movement and
to all Islamist currents and trends in our region, I am not in anyway
involved with their problems with the Egyptian government."
Asked whether this means he was denying affiliated to the Muslim
Brotherhood, al-Qarni said "I announced this [denial] during the previous
charge that was issued by the Egyptian regime [against me], and I challenge
the Egyptian regime to prove that I have any connection with the Muslim
Brotherhood."
However al-Qarni added "This is not contempt or distain towards the Muslim
Brotherhood or any other children of the virtuous ummah, but we in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have a specialty which is built upon applying
Islamic Shariaa law on all aspects of life, therefore – unlike other Arab
countries – we are not in need of an organized mechanism to return Islam to
the lives of the ummah."
The trial of the accused by the Egyptian State Security Emergency Court is
set to take place within the next few days, and under Egyptian Emergency law
the results of this trial cannot be appealed.
The Egyptian Public Prosecution revealed that they accused 4 of the 5
suspects of providing financing of £4 million to the outlawed Muslim
Brotherhood organization to finance its illegal activities in Egypt. The
Public Prosecution also accused 2 of the 5 suspects of money laundering a
sum of 2.8 million euros. The Public Prosecution alleges that Defendant No 4
sent several money transfers to the account of Defendant No 5, and that this
money was later transferred into US dollars.
The details of the case date back to July 2009 when the Egyptian
Intelligence Service discovered that an individual they were investigating
for money laundering – Defendant No 5 – was in fact a member of the Muslim
Brotherhood, and that he was laundering money for the outlawed group. The
Public Prosecution claim that Defendant No 5 was receiving money from
abroad, which he was laundering for the Muslim Brotherhood organization
through various foreign investment projects in Egypt.
The Public Prosecution documents also reveal that on 4 June 2009, the
Egyptian Security Services received notification from the unit dealing with
money laundering that various suspicious money transfers amounting to 2.7
million euros had been made into a Lebanese bank account belonging to
Defendant No 5.
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