JEDDAH, 21 October 2003 — Saudi businessman Yaseen Al-Qadi was given a first hearing by the Court of First Instance of the European Union last week concerning what Al-Qadi describes as the unlawful freezing of his assets throughout the European Union.
Al-Qadi told the court the freeze breached his fundamental human rights; he has no access to any other court with the power to consider the merits of the decision.
The European Union institutions said they issued their regulation in compliance with the decision of the UN Security Council to freeze the assets of certain individuals including Al-Qadi.
Al-Qadi launched a legal challenge against the European Union after his assets in Britain were frozen in 2001 because he was accused of being an Al-Qaeda financier.
“In all my individual, business and charitable activities I have never supported, nor have I intended to support in any manner whatsoever, Osama Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda,” Al-Qadi said after the hearing. “All the allegations on which the decision was apparently based are untrue.”
Al-Qadi is also challenging the inclusion of his name on the US-designated terrorist list because of his association with a now-defunct Islamic charity Muwaffaq which the US Treasury Department claims “has been identified as an Al-Qaeda front funded by wealthy Saudi businessmen.”
