US include in list of terrorism network in Brazil allegedly linked to al Qaeda

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The US government has included a Brazilian network of individuals and companies allegedly linked to al Qaeda on the Treasury Department’s list of terrorism, the US embassy reported on Wednesday (22).

Haytham Ahmad Shukri Ahmad Al-Maghrabi, 35, Egyptian naturalized Brazilian, Mohamed Sherif Mohamed Awadd, 48, Egyptian and Syrian national, and Ahmad Al-Khatib, 52, Egyptian and Lebanese national, will have assets and accounts in the US frozen. The companies Home Elegance Comércio de Móveis, whose trade name is Morocco Furniture and Mattresses, and Enterprise Comércio de Móveis and Business Intermediation, located in Guarulhos and owned by Awadd and Al-Khatib, also face sanctions.

The three would have “materially assisted, sponsored or provided financial or technological support and goods or services to support the [facção terrorista] Al Qaeda,” according to the US government.

According to American authorities, Al-Maghrabi, who arrived in Brazil in 2015, was one of the first members of one of the al Qaeda networks in the country. He would have had frequent contacts and maintained business for the purchase of foreign currency from another individual affiliated with the organization in Brazilian territory.

The US also says that Al-Maghrabi was, until 2018, the group’s contact in Brazil. He reportedly reported to Ahmed Mohamed Hamed Ali, an Egyptian linked to al Qaeda’s attacks on US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, which caused more than 200 deaths. He died in 2010 in Pakistan.

Sought out, al-Maghrabi claimed not to know Ali. “I don’t know, I’ve never heard that name,” he, who denies any involvement with al Qaeda, told leaf.

Awadd, according to the US government, arrived in Brazil in mid-2018 and received bank transfers from other al Qaeda associates in the country. “By the end of 2018, Awadd played a significant role in an al Qaeda-affiliated group and was involved in the printing of counterfeit currency.”

Also according to the US government, Awadd and Ahmad Al-Khatib have materially assisted, sponsored or provided financial or technological support to Mohamed Ahmed Elsayed Ahmed Ibrahim, included in the US Treasury’s 2019 list of terrorism “for having acted in favor or on behalf of of al Qaeda”.

“Today’s assignments will help deny al Qaeda access to the formal financial sector to generate revenue to support its activities,” said Andrea Gacki, director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). “The activities of this Brazil-based network demonstrate that al Qaeda remains a pervasive global terrorist threat.”

Khatib, who is a Muslim sheikh, has been in Brazil for 32 years and presides over the NGO Associação Livro Aberto (Islamic Nucleus), which receives Syrian refugees. He had already been investigated in Operation Hashtag, in 2016, which uncovered an alleged terrorist scheme to carry out an attack on the Olympics in Rio.

AT leaf he denies any involvement with al Qaeda. “I have nothing to do with al Qaeda, nor does there exist al Qaeda in Brazil, these people from the US have a Hollywood imagination,” said Khatib. He said he knew the other two defendants, Al-Maghrabi and Awadd, because he sold a factory to them.

“They came to Brazil fleeing Egypt, where they are persecuted. We meet at the mosque and do business. I have an NGO, I help people, I make donations and I don’t ask if who is receiving it is from Al Qaeda or the PCC. I have nothing. to do with Al Qaeda. I’ve been living in Brazil for 32 years, I work, I help people and I want a quiet life.”

The US government reported having acted in collaboration with Brazilian authorities. In 2019, the US had already included an Egyptian citizen living in the country on its terrorism list, allegedly linked to al Qaeda. Others entered the relationship through links to Hizbullah.

Al Qaeda was the author of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people, in addition to several other attacks. The sanctions prohibit all transactions carried out by Americans, inside or outside the US, that involve any property or interest in property of designated or blocked persons.

Property and interests owned by listed individuals and entities that are in the US or in the possession or control of Americans will be blocked. Brazilian banks also cannot authorize individuals included in the list to open accounts in their American subsidiaries, under penalty of sanctions.

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