NEW YORK: A dual Lebanese-Belgian citizen accused by the United States of financing Lebanese armed group Hezbollah is expected to plead guilty in a criminal case charging him with sanctions evasion and money-laundering conspiracies.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in a court filing on Thursday that lawyers for Mohammad Bazzi told them he wishes to change his plea. Bazzi, 60, pleaded not guilty last year to three felony counts, including attempting to transact with a sanctioned terrorist organization.
Bazzi’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US Treasury Department placed Bazzi on its sanctions list in 2018 over his alleged ties to Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist organization.
Prosecutors said Bazzi covertly sold real estate he owned in Michigan and transferred the funds abroad, in violation of those sanctions.
Bazzi was extradited to the United States in April 2023 from Romania, where he had been arrested two months prior.
Prosecutors and Bazzi’s lawyers jointly asked US District Judge Dora Irizarry to schedule a hearing later this month for Bazzi to change his plea.
Alleged Hezbollah financier expected to plead guilty in US sanctions case
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Alleged Hezbollah financier expected to plead guilty in US sanctions case
- Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in a court filing on Thursday that lawyers for Mohammad Bazzi told them he wishes to change his plea
- He pleaded not guilty last year to three felony counts, including attempting to transact with a sanctioned terrorist organization.
Israeli fire kills Palestinian in the occupied West Bank
- Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Health Ministry figures
RAMALLAH: The Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said that Israeli forces killed a man in the northern occupied West Bank on Friday.
“Bahaa Abdel-Rahman Rashid (38 years old) was killed by Israeli fire in the town of Odala, south of Nablus,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Shortly before, the Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams handled the case of a man “who suffered a critical head injury during clashes in the town of Odala near Nablus, and CPR is currently being performed on him.”
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
Witness and Odala resident Muhammad Al-Kharouf said that Israeli troops were patrolling in Odala and threw tear gas canisters at men who were exiting the local mosque for Friday prayer.
Rashid was killed by live fire in the clashes that followed, added Kharouf, who had been inside the mosque with him.
The Israeli military said on Friday it had completed a two-week counterterrorism operation in the northern West Bank during which it killed six militants, and questioned dozens of suspects.
It said that Rashid was not among the six militants killed over the past two weeks.
Dozens of men, including Rashid’s father, gathered at the nearby city of Nablus’ Rafidia Hospital to bid him goodbye on Friday, a journalist reported.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.
It has not ceased despite the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in October.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Health Ministry figures.
