Counterterrorism Blog

Incredibly a Swiss Court has ordered the Swiss Federation to pay 123,125.10 Swiss Francs ($96,000) to Youssef Nada as damages with regard to the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office failure to pursue its criminal case against Nada. The basis for the judgment award is that Nada was unjustly prejudiced by having criminal charges brought against him and then dropped. We are told that this financial award is within the normal range provided to the accused in such cases. Nada’s lawyer, Counselor Fritz Schiesser, had asked for considerably more. He filed suit for such damages last June following the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office to drop its terrorism financing case against Nada (see my earlier blog on that topic). The investigation against Nada had been opened in 2001. The Prosecutor’s Office had indicated that it might subsequently re-file the charges against Nada. This has not yet occurred. Apparently the Prosecutor’s office continues to face difficult barriers inhibiting it from converting intelligence information into court usable evidence.

But, this judicial award in favor of Nada raises another important collateral question concerning the application of UN sanctions. Nada was designated by the UN’s Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee for having provided funding to Al Qaeda and associated entities. There is a long line of UN resolutions which require all countries to “Freeze without delay the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of these individuals…and to ensure that neither these nor any other funds, financial asets or economic resources are made available directly or indirectly, for such person’s benefit, by their nationals or by any persons within their territory.” It would appear from this that the Swiss government should ensure that if payment of such an award is actually contemplated, that it be paid only into a blocked account. Any question of payment against Nada’s legal expenses would require an exception from the UN Al Qaeda and Sanctions Committee. It will be interesting to see what really happens here.