JEDDAH, 17 July 2007 — Saudi businessman and philanthropist Yassin Qadi issued a statement through his lawyer yesterday denying that he was arrested by Saudi authorities as some Turkish media outlets reported recently.
The statement added that Qadi has appointed a lawyer in Turkey to file a libel case against newspapers and satellite channels that had reported the false news.
According to the statement, Sheikh Yassin Abdullah Qadi “is enjoying his complete freedom on Saudi land and is not under any kind of suspicion, arrest or criminalization by Saudi authorities or any other country of the countries or agencies related to combating terrorism or financing it.”
Qadi told Arab News, “As you know there are elections now in Turkey and we feared thrusting our name like this in the media was meant to create confusion.”
Qadi has personal relations with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is campaigning for the upcoming critical parliamentary elections on July 22. In Aug. 2006, Turkey’s highest court, the Council of State, overturned a government order freezing Qadi’s assets in Turkey.
The freeze order was issued six years ago after the United Nations, at the behest of the United States, designated Qadi as a suspected Al-Qaeda financier. The Turkish court found that no evidence had been presented linking Qadi with Al-Qaeda and thus overturned the order.
At that time, Qadi received the backing from Erdogan, who publicly announced that he personally knew Qadi and was certain that he had no links with any terrorist organization.
“Some Turkish newspapers and two satellite channels reported that Sheikh Yassin Qadi was arrested by Saudi authorities in relation to financing terrorist activities, which is not true,” said Mansour Al-Khenaizan, Qadi’s lawyer. “We decided to issue a statement through the Saudi press denying these allegations,” he added.
The US and the UN froze Qadi’s assets shortly after Sept. 11. An investigation was started in October 2001. The Saudi businessman headed the charity Muwafaq Foundation, which appeared on a CIA list of suspected Al-Qaeda front organizations and has since stopped operating.
The Saudi businessman has filed cases in all the countries where his assets had been frozen. In yesterday’s statement, Qadi’s lawyer Al-Khenaizan states that even though Qadi’s name is among the list of people whose assets have been frozen by the UN, this procedure does not mean that his client has been proven to be involved in terrorist activities.
He added that all investigations undertaken since Oct. 2001 have not found any evidence linking Qadi to terrorism or any other criminal activity.
The statement also adds that Qadi has been seeking to remove his name from the UN list by pursuing a case at the European Court of Justice and contacting several governments to emphasize his innocence based on the investigations.
