JEDDAH, 14 May 2005 — The former director of Al-Haramain Charitable Foundation has filed lawsuits against four top US officials including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for listing him among terrorists. “The US action has tarnished my image and led to freezing of my accounts and investments inside and outside Saudi Arabia,” Al-Hayat Arabic daily quoted Aqeel Al-Aqeel as saying.
He said legal actions have been taken against Rice, Treasury Secretary John Snow, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and Assistant Treasury Secretary for Terrorism Affairs Juan Zarate.
Al-Aqeel’s name has been included on the globally circulated list of individuals and organizations that allegedly support terrorism. He demanded the US officials prove their allegations that he backed terrorism or remove his name from the list.
He said he took the action against the four officials as they were responsible for classifying individuals and organizations on the terrorist list prepared by the US government and endorsed by the United Nations seven months ago.
M. Wendell Belew, Jr., president of the Belew Law Firm and spokesman for the Friends of Charities Association, has said that the closure of the Al-Haramain might have been politically motivated and linked to the US presidential elections last year. He said the Dutch government is understood to be unfreezing the assets of Al-Haramain, since it has not discovered any material evidence that would justify a continued freeze on its assets.
