WASHINGTON: Lebanese businessman Kassim Tajideen, designated by US authorities as an important financial supporter of Hezbollah, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to evading sanctions against him, a Justice Department statement said.
Tajideen, 63, pleaded guilty before a Washington court and faces five years in prison and a forfeiture of $50 million if his deal with prosecutors is accepted.
He was named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2009 by the Treasury Department over his links to Hezbollah, a Shiite political party and militant group in Lebanon.
Tajideen has been detained since extradition to the United States in March 2017 after his arrest overseas, the statement added.
“We are going to keep targeting Hezbollah and other terrorist groups and their supporters, and we are going to keep winning,” said Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who hailed the guilty plea.
Hezbollah has been a US designated terrorist group since 1997 and fights alongside the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the country’s civil war.
Key Hezbollah financier pleads guilty in US
Key Hezbollah financier pleads guilty in US
- Lebanese businessman Kassim Tajideen pleaded guilty and faces five years in prison and a forfeiture of $50 million if his deal with prosecutors is accepted
- “We are going to keep targeting Hezbollah and other terrorist groups and their supporters, and we are going to keep winning”
Hamas says will give up arms to a Palestinian authority ‘if occupation ends’
- “We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza,” Hayya says
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas said Saturday it was ready to hand over its weapons in the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian authority governing the territory on the condition that the Israeli army’s occupation ends.
“Our weapons are linked to the existence of the occupation and the aggression,” Hamas chief negotiator and its Gaza chief Khalil Al-Hayya said in a statement, adding: “If the occupation ends, these weapons will be placed under the authority of the state.” Asked by AFP, Hayya’s bureau said he was referring to a sovereign and independent Palestnian state.
“We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza,” Hayya added, signalling his group’s rejection of the deployment of an international force in the Strip whose mission would be to disarm it.
