Five individuals in France have been charged with financing terrorism over their alleged links to charities suspected of funnelling millions of euros to Hamas.
France's anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) says the financing took place under the guise of humanitarian aid for Palestinians living in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
The announcement comes after a two-year investigation supported by the US, Israel and Italy, part of a wider crackdown by European judicial authorities against Hamas funding activities on the continent following the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 that started the Gaza war.
One of the charities under scrutiny is Soutien Humani'Terre (Humanitarian Support), previously known as the Committee for Charity and Support for the Palestinians (CBSP). Founded in 1990, it has a history of accusations of financing terrorists.
Cash piles
A second charity, Humani'Terre, says on its website it has suspended all fund-raising activities because of "multiple administrative and banking obstacles". The link between the two charities, which bear similar names, remains unclear.
During a raid in January 2024, IT hardware and €5 million ($5.9 million) in cash and €35 million in bank accounts were seized from the charities' offices in Paris, Lyon, Lille and Marseille, the PNAT told The National, confirming earlier French media reports.
It was not specified what proportion of these funds was believed to have been sent to Hamas.
Authorities focused on two buildings belonging to the charities in Paris and in the suburb of La Courneuve. After hardware was analysed and translated with the help of the US, Italy and Israel, more raids were conducted on February 16.
Several police departments were involved in the inquiry, including the anti-terrorism section of the criminal brigade of the Paris police, the General Directorate for Internal Security and the Central Office for the Repression of Major Financial Crime.
Five people were charged after being held briefly in police custody and released under judicial supervision. They are accused of financing of a terrorist enterprise, criminal terrorist conspiracy and money laundering by an organised group in connection with a terrorist enterprise.
The two charities and its executives "are thus suspected of sending funds, under the guise of humanitarian aid, to Hamas, a terrorist organisation", the PNAT told The National. "Investigations will now continue under the direction of three anti-terrorism magistrates."
Hamas was listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union in 2003. In January 2024, in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, the bloc created a dedicated sanctions framework to penalise those linked to the group. Sanctions include frozen assets and a ban on making funds available.
Muslim Brotherhood links
The PNAT has not publicly commented on the identity of the executives under investigation. Yet one of them appears to be the former head of Humani'Terre, Tunisian-born Boubaker El Hadj Amor, currently the imam of the Great Mosque of Poitiers in central France. He is described as having links with a prominent Muslim Brotherhood-affiliation, Muslims of France.
His assets and those belonging to four other executives at Humani'Terre were frozen in June 2024 due to suspicions of funding Hamas, local newspaper La Nouvelle Republique reported in November of the same year.
In July 2024, the charity's lawyers said they rejected accusations of terrorist funding and said "highly secure procedures have been developed to ensure the smooth operation and implementation of humanitarian projects" run by Humani'Terre.
Mr El Hadj Amor is thought to have stepped down from his role at Humani'Terre to focus on defending himself. He told La Nouvelle Republique the NGO and its leaders "found themselves caught in a whirlwind linked to October 7 and this whole war".
He added there had been a number of inquiries into CBSP since its founding, a situation he described as "natural" as the group operates in "sensitive countries". Mr El Hadj Amor stressed no evidence has been found linking it to the financing of terrorism.
In 2010, the CBSP successfully filed a defamation lawsuit against the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif) after accusing it of being a front for Hamas. The Crif was ordered to pay a €3,000 fine.
"Then suddenly, just like that, we discover that we are supposedly a financier of Hamas, which is complete nonsense – it has nothing to do with humanitarian reality," Mr El Hadj Amor said.
In 2003, the CBSP is reported to have been listed alongside four other NGOs in Europe by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control for allegedly funding Hamas. The decision did not affect its ability to work in France, though it encountered issues with national banks, which closed its accounts out of fear of US sanctions, the magazine Paris Match reported.
Humani'Terre is reported to have had accounts holding €35 million closed in 2022 by the Credit Co-operatif bank after facing rejections from Credit Lyonnais and La Banque postale. It remains unclear where it was able to place the funds before they were seized by the judiciary two years later.
