Australia has joined the United States and a number of European countries in freezing the assets of an Islamic charity foundation with alleged links to the militant Palestinian group Hamas, the government announced. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia had added the al-Aqsa Foundation to a list of organisations whose assets could be frozen because of suspected links to terror groups. “As a consequence of this listing it is now a criminal offence for persons who hold assets that are owned or controlled by the al-Aqsa Foundation to use or deal with those assets,” he said. It also becomes a criminal offence punishable with five years imprisonment to make assets available to the al-Aqsa Foundation. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, has been linked to recent suicide bombings in Israel. It is unclear whether the organisation has any assets in Australia. Full Story
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