Clarity demanded on terrorism blacklist

Emanuele Gagliardi

Switzerland is calling for reform of the United Nations terrorism blacklist in an effort to improve transparency.

There are currently 480 banned individuals and companies, including a businessman, Youssef Nada, who was investigated by the Swiss authorities for having suspected links with the militant Islamic al-Qaeda organisation.

The aim of the initiative, put forward jointly with Sweden, Denmark and Liechtenstein, is to set up an independent panel which would check the validity of the entries on the UN list.

Several dozen countries expressed an interest in the proposal, according to a Swiss foreign ministry spokesman who added that moves were underway, also by members of the UN Security Council in New York, to discuss the initiative.

So far 35 people and organisations have been taken off the list after they appealed against their appearance on the list of suspected supporters of terrorism.

The most prominent case of a listed person in Switzerland is the Al Taqwa bank of Youssef Nada, an Egyptian-Italian businessman, who lives under house arrest in an Italian exclave in southern Switzerland.

He was put on the list by the UN in 2001, but Swiss investigations into suspected financing of terrorism were abandoned in the meantime for lack of evidence.

Nada repeatedly demanded to be struck off the UN list, but the Swiss authorities refused to comply, saying they were bound by international regulations.

Two trials

In November a committee of the Council of Europe adopted a report by a Swiss investigator, Dick Marty, criticising procedures used to blacklist people suspected of terrorist links.

Marty said the blacklist violated basic human rights.

Swiss courts found a Tunisian man and his wife guilty of supporting radical Islamic organisations via internet sites.

The main defendant was given a six-month prison sentence for allegedly letting groups linked to al-Qaeda use internet forums set up to exchange information.

In another trial in February 2007, seven defendants were cleared by the Federal Criminal Court of links to al-Qaeda.

swissinfo with agencies

In brief

Two high-profile cases of suspected Islamic terrorist funding in Switzerland have been dropped in the past three years.

Last December an inquiry into a Saudi Arabian businessman was suspended due to a lack of evidence, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

The businessman, Y.K., was alleged to have transferred millions from his Swiss bank account to people belonging to al-Qaeda.

As a result the Swiss authorities are expected to unblock more than SFr20 million ($18.3 million) from his accounts.

The case against Youssef Nada and his Al Taqwa bank was dropped in May 2005.

Investigations were launched against both of them in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.