Ex-diplomat pleads guilty to financing Hezbollah
Published: Saturday, Sep 21st 2024, 10:20
العودة إلى البث المباشر
A Lebanese ex-diplomat has admitted to a US court that he co-financed Hezbollah, which the US government classifies as a terrorist organization. The 60-year-old Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York on Friday to conspiracy to engage in unlawful transactions with an international terrorist organization, the US Department of Justice announced.
With this admission, Bazzi, who holds Lebanese, British and Belgian citizenship, wants to avoid possible sanctions. Bazzi has "accepted responsibility for his role in the conspiracy to secretly transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon in violation of the sanctions imposed on him for supporting the terrorist organization Hezbollah," said US Attorney Breon Peace.
The US State Department declared Bazzi an "international terrorist" in May 2018 and offered a bounty of ten million dollars for his capture. In February 2023, he was arrested in Romania and extradited to the USA. The Lebanese man faces up to 20 years in prison, deportation from the USA and the confiscation of around 830,000 dollars (around 705,000 Swiss francs) from the illegal transactions. The verdict is still pending.
According to the US Treasury Department, Bazzi has provided Hezbollah with millions of dollars over the years. These came from business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq and West Africa.
Accomplice at large in Lebanon
The statement from the US Attorney's Office also said that Bazzi had worked with an accomplice, Talal Chahine. Chahine remains at large in Lebanon. The two men would have attempted to launder their transactions through purchases and fictitious loans for the equipment of a restaurant in China, a property in Lebanon and a family loan in Kuwait.
According to the research platform Propublica, Bazzi was appointed honorary consul in Lebanon by the Gambian government in 2005. His role as an honorary diplomat opened important doors for him worldwide.
The USA has classified Hezbollah as a terrorist organization because of its attacks on US military personnel, government employees and civilians abroad. Washington holds the high-ranking Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Akil, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday, responsible for the deadly bomb attack on the US embassy in Beirut and for the hostage-taking of Germans and US citizens in Lebanon in the 1980s. The US authorities had put a bounty of seven million dollars on his head.
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