Imam from Gaza indicted for smuggling funds from Malaysia charities to Hamas terrorist group

The Southern District Attorney’s Office on Thursday filed an indictment with the Beersheba District Court against a Gaza Imam for smuggling funds from Malaysian charities to Hamas. According to the indictment, the Imam, Walid Div, 43, traveled from Gaza to Egypt numerous times since 2013 to fly to deliver religious sermons in Malaysia.

While in Malaysia, Div was asked by certain Malaysian charities to smuggle funds back into Gaza for Hamas.

In 2013, he smuggled $3,000 USD on behalf of the Malaysian charities to Hamas.
Div also worked with many of the same charities to smuggle funds to Hamas from Malaysia on other occasions.

Neither Div nor the Malaysian charities are currently officially associated with Hamas, but the charities include members of Hamas who use the charities as a front to raise terror funds for Gaza’s rulers.

Likewise, while Div quit working directly with Hamas shortly after briefly joining them in 2004, he has maintained ties to various Hamas officials and had expressed a willingness to assist in smuggling funds.

A statement from the Justice Ministry said that he had also helped smuggle a package of unknown identity (but presumed to be electronic) from Malaysia to Egypt, finding upon landing in Egypt that the object had disappeared.

The statement appeared to imply that other associates of Hamas may have taken the package in Egypt once Div succeeded in getting it out of Malaysia.

Div was charged with performing illegal activities for foreign agents, providing services to an illegal organization and acting to acquire assets in support of terror.

As Israel and the US have cracked down on terror financing for groups like Hamas, Gaza’s rulers have attempted to use more creative approaches to raising terror funds abroad.

Source: JP