Swiss Prosecutor Drops Investigation of Yassin Al-Qadi

By Andrew Cochran

From today's Arab News:

The six-year-long saga of Saudi businessman Yassin Abdullah Al-Qadi, who was accused by US authorities of funding terrorism, has ended with the Swiss federal prosecutor exonerating him of all charges.

According to a report carried by Al-Watan newspaper yesterday, judicial authorities in Switzerland have closed the case against Al-Qadi after investigations that lasted for six years and two months.

The judgment issued by a court in Geneva on Dec. 13 said it had not found any basis for the accusations leveled against Al-Qadi. “This statement in Swiss law means clear exoneration,” the paper said quoting a lawyer for the businessman.

The lawyer, who requested anonymity, said the court verdict would lead to unfreezing Al-Qadi’s accounts in Swiss banks and the Geneva-based Faisal Bank.

Al-Qadi was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department in October 2001 for alleged financial support of Al Qaeda, something he always denied. We have followed the Al-Qadi case closely. You can read numerous posts on the matter by Victor Comras, Douglas Farah, Matthew Levitt, myself, and others here on this archive page. This move comes just five weeks after the U.S. and U.N. delisted another alleged Al Qaeda financier, Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, as reported first by Jonathan Winer.

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