Dutch Arrest Father, Daughter for Sending Millions to Hamas

AMSTERDAM (JNS) – Dutch investigators have arrested a father and daughter for “large-scale financing” of Hamas, in breach of E.U. sanctions, prosecutors said Monday.

The man, 55, and his daughter, 25, from the town of Leidschendam near The Hague, were arrested on June 22, AFP reported.

During searches of a house in Leidschendam and a business in Rotterdam, investigators found cash and seized a bank account with a balance of around 750,000 euros ($820,000).

In addition to being suspected of sending approximately 5.5 million euros ($6 million) to Hamas, “they are also suspected of participating in a criminal organization whose purpose is to support Hamas financially,” the public prosecution service said.

That organization had replaced an earlier, sanctioned organization which sent funds to Hamas, prosecutors said.

The probe was launched following reports of unusual transactions, and newspaper articles about a Hamas fundraising event in Europe, they added.

The pair remain in custody.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, was placed on an E.U. terrorism blacklist after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

It was temporarily removed from the list by a lower E.U. court in 2014, but was reinstated by the bloc’s top court in 2017, AFP reported.