U.S. includes in terrorism list network in Brazil allegedly linked to Al Qaeda

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The U.S. government has included a Brazilian network of individuals and companies allegedly linked to Al Qaeda on the Treasury Department’s terrorism list, the U.S. embassy said Wednesday (22).

Haytham Ahmad Shukri Ahmad Al-Maghrabi, 35, an Egyptian with Brazilian citizenship, Mohamed Sherif Mohamed Awadd, 48, of Egyptian and Syrian nationality, and Ahmad Al-Khatib, 52, of Egyptian and Lebanese nationality, will have assets and accounts in the U.S. frozen.

Also subject to sanctions are the companies Home Elegance Comércio de Móveis, whose fantasy name is Marrocos Móveis e Colchões, and Enterprise Comércio de Móveis e Intermediação de Negócios, located in Guarulhos and owned by Awadd and Al-Khatib.

The three are alleged to have “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial or technological support, as well as goods or services, to assist Al Qaeda,” according to the U.S. government.

According to U.S. authorities, Al-Maghrabi, who arrived in Brazil in 2015, was an early member of one of Al Qaeda’s networks in the country. He would have had frequent contacts and maintained business dealings to purchase foreign currency from another individual affiliated with the organization in Brazilian territory.

The U.S. 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 the Al Qaeda attacks on the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, which caused more than 200 deaths. He died in 2010 in Pakistan.

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

Awadd, meanwhile, according to the U.S. government, arrived in Brazil in mid-2018 and received wire 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 printing counterfeit currency.”

Also, according to the U.S. government, Awadd and Al-Khatib were alleged to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial or technological support to Mohamed Ahmed Elsayed Ahmed Ibrahim, who is included on the U.S. Treasury’s 2019 terrorism list “for acting for or on behalf of Al Qaeda.”

“Today’s designations will help deny al Qaeda access to the formal financial sector to generate revenue that supports 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, a Muslim sheik, has been in Brazil for 32 years and chairs the NGO Open Book Association (Islamic Nucleus), which receives Syrian refugees.

He had already been investigated in Operation Hashtag in 2016, which investigated an alleged terrorist scheme to attack the Olympics in Rio. In 2017, the Paraná Justice Department convicted eight people involved in the operation, and Khatib was not among them.

To Folha, he denies any involvement with Al Qaeda. “I have nothing to do with Al Qaeda, nor does Al Qaeda exist in Brazil, these people from the U.S. have Hollywood imaginations,” he said. He said he knew the other two accused, Al-Maghrabi and Awadd because he sold a factory to them.

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

The U.S. government reported acting in collaboration with Brazilian authorities. In 2019, the U.S. had already included an Egyptian citizen living in the country on its terrorism list for alleged links to Al Qaeda. Others entered the list for links to the Lebanese Hizbullah movement.

The Egyptian’s name was removed from the list the same year because he was no longer a fugitive, but the FBI, the U.S. federal police, questioned him again the following year in a secretive case.

Al Qaeda was the author of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, which killed almost 3,000 people, and several other attacks.

With the sanctions, all transactions by Americans, inside or outside the U.S., that involve any property or interest in the hands of designated or blocked persons are prohibited.

Brazilian banks cannot authorize individuals on the list to open accounts in their American subsidiaries under penalty of sanctions.

With information from Folha