JEDDAH, 25 December 2005 — Following the exoneration of Saudi businessman Sheikh Yassin Abdullah Al-Qadi by a Swiss court earlier this month, Saudi businessmen have expressed their happiness over the news.
“I am very happy to know that my friend Al-Qadi has been cleared of all charges by the Swiss court,” Zuhair Fayez, a Jeddah-based architect, told Arab News yesterday. He described Al-Qadi as a reputable businessman with international fame.
Fayez said the individuals and agencies that falsely accused Al-Qadi of funding terrorism must be held responsible for damaging his reputation and interests.
“The truth will certainly prevail even if it takes time,” Abdul Rahman Al-Khereiji, a local business leader, told Arab News. “Thank God for the court verdict, which has once again proved Al-Qadi had never involved in any terror funding.”
The Federal Criminal Court in Berne cleared Al-Qadi of any wrongdoing in a case stemming from the 9/11 attacks, his lawyers announced on Dec. 12.
The charges alleged that Al-Qadi gave money in 1998 ostensibly to construct student housing at Al-Iman University in Yemen while knowing that the funds may have ended up supporting Al-Qaeda’s plan to attack New York City.
“I am delighted by this judgment, which categorically concludes that the transfers being investigated by Swiss authorities — which were all bona fide donations for the purposes of benefiting a university in Yemen — had nothing whatsoever to do with the Sept. 11 attacks,” said Al-Qadi in a statement issued through his lawyers.
Al-Qadi’s assets were frozen by the US and the UN shortly after the Twin Tower attacks and an investigation was opened in October 2001. In four years no charges were ever filed against Al-Qadi.
The Saudi businessman headed the Muwafaq (Blessed Charity) Foundation. The organization ended up on a CIA list of suspected Al-Qaeda front organizations following the 9/11 attacks. The group also received funds from the United Nations in 1997 for its famine-relief work in the Sudan.
Charles Shoebridge, a former British counter-terrorism intelligence officer told the BBC in October 2001 that legitimate organizations can be susceptible to infiltration by terrorism backers, but “they appear to be ordinary, credible charities.”
And on Dec. 12 the Swiss concurred, stating that no evidence ever linked Al-Qadi to any knowledge of the possibility that his money could have ended up in the hands of a known terrorist organization.
“Nothing in the file allows one to conclude with sufficient likelihood that Yassin Abdullah Kadi (sic) knew or was able to know that the payments he made and for which he is implicated in the Swiss proceedings, could serve to specifically finance the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,” said the Swiss court in a statement issued after the ruling.
Sixteen American relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks are claiming damages against various individuals or entities on the basis of allegations that they knowingly financed terrorism.
The plaintiffs are part of the Families United Against Terrorism organization, which filed a $116 trillion class action lawsuit in 2002 against Saudi princes and entities and the Khartoum government.
