Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 25, 2004
Britain orders freeze of assets of Hamas leaders
Britain Wednesday ordered the Bank of England to freeze assets belonging to five senior members of Palestinian militant group Hamas, including its new leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
Britain Wednesday ordered the Bank of England to freeze assets belonging to five senior members of Palestinian militant group Hamas, including its new leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, said in a statement that "this action has been taken because the Treasury has reasonable grounds for suspecting that four of the individualsare, or may be, persons who facilitate or participate in the commission of acts of terrorism and one, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, is ormay be a person who commits, facilitates or participates in such acts."
The Bank of England will enforce the freeze by directing financial institutions that may hold such funds to put a stop on the accounts.
Brown also instructed the bank to add the names "Kadek" and "Kongra-Gel" - aliases of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (KWP) - to its list of terrorist groups that are subject to an asset freeze. The KWP is already on the list.