Two Iraqi men charged with financing ISIS
28.12.2020
An indictment has been filed with a Polish court against two Iraqi citizens detained by Poland’s Internal Security Agency. The detainees have been charged with funding the notorious Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization.
The investigation, conducted by the Internal Security Agency (ABW) – Poland’s counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence service – between 2017 and 2020, has found that the suspects carried out their criminal activity through a non-banking financial company “HAWALA”. Between March and May 2016, they used the entity to transfer money to the terrorist organization for its operations in the Middle East.
The crime consisted in collecting money, donated by ISIS fighter’s families residing in Europe via Western Union transfers to Poland, and then sending it to terrorist militants in Iraq.
The two Iraqi men were detained by the officers of the ABW in June, 2020, and have been remanded in custody ever since. On December 14th, 2020, they were presented with charges of financing terrorism and now face imprisonment of from 2 to 12 years.
Spokesman for Poland’s Minister-Special Services Coordinator