Brown freezes terror group’s accounts
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that the UK will freeze all financial assets belonging to the terrorist group believed to be responsible for the kidnapping and execution of Ken Bigley.
The announcement came in the House of Commons during oral questions this lunchtime.
Gordon Brown said that he has instructed the Bank of England to direct financial institutions to freeze all assets belonging to Jama’at al-Tawhid Wa’al-Jihad.
It will now be a criminal offence to hold or facilitate funds held by the group.
Mr Brown told MPs that: “We must do all in our power to ensure there is no hiding place for terrorists and no hiding place for those who finance terrorism” and added that the UK is working internationally to deny JTJ access to funds around the world.
Under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001 the Government can freeze the assets of any individual or a group where there are reasonable grounds to believe that they belong to “a person who commits, attempts to commit, facilitates or participates in the commission of acts of terrorism”.
It is not known whether the group does have assets in the UK, though this might be revealed by the freezing process.
