Times Online : Charity funds are frozen in terror investigation

Charity funds are frozen in terror investigation

By Lee Glendinning | August 24, 2006

Britain's charity regulator has frozen the bank accounts of the aid organisation Crescent Relief and begun a formal inquiry into possible connections with the men suspected of planning an alleged terror plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.

The Times revealed last week that Crescent Relief, which raised funds for victims of last year’s Pakistan earthquake, had emerged as a potential link between some of the terror suspects.

The probe, announced today by the Charity Commission, the regulator for England and Wales, will focus on whether or not the charity’s funds - or funds raised on its behalf - were used unlawfully or subject to terrorist misuse. It will also consider the financial policies and practices of the charity.

Kenneth Dibble, director of legal and charity services, said the group was now working with law enforcement agencies to get to the bottom of the allegations.

"The allegations made are very serious, and we are taking this action to protect the charity's funds while the investigation is underway," he said. "At this early stage in such a complex and sensitive investigation, it is difficult to say how long our inquiry may take. Once it is completed, however, we plan to issue a full report setting out our findings."

The commission has frozen the of the charity's bank accounts "as a temporary and protective measure".

Crescent Relief was co-founded in 2000 by the Abdul Rauf, the father of Rashid Rauf, who has been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the plot. Rashid Rauf’s brother, Tayib Rauf, who had also been arrested as part of the alleged plot, was last night released without charge.

Mr Rauf left the Crescent Relief board of trustees in 2001.

Crescent Relief London was active in High Wycombe after the earthquake in Pakistan last October, which killed at least 70,000 people. Many of Muslims living in High Wycombe originate from the epicentre of the quake, Kashmir.

The public gave £30 million for earthquake relief, much of it raised in mosques and donated to locally based charities.

* A 27-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a raid on a house in Manchester, and is being held under the Terrorism Act.

The man was seized yesterday when six officers executed a search warrant raiding a house in Cheetham Hill, Greater Manchester.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester police said the arrest was not related to the current investigation into the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners or to the July 7 London bombings. It is understood the man's family is of Pakistani origin.