French government freezes Hani Ramadan’s assets; he responds -

The French government has frozen the assets of Swiss imam Hani Ramadan as part of the fight against the financing of terrorism.

His assets have been frozen for six months, according to the decree published on Sunday in the official French government bulletin and reported on Tuesday by Lyon Capitale. This is within the framework of an article of the Monetary and Financial Code targeting “natural or legal persons, or any other entity that commits, attempts to commit, facilitates, finances, incites or participates in acts of terrorism”.

He has two months to contest the freezing of his assets, said the decree, made jointly by the economy, finance and interior ministries.

Contacted by the Swiss News Agency, Ramadan said he was the victim of “political posturing”, adding that the freezing of his assets was pointless as he didn’t have any assets in France, not even a bank account. He said he had contacted his lawyer to work out a response to give to the French authorities.

Ramadan’s name was one of 16 on a list of foreign nationals sentenced for or suspected of having links to a terrorist organization or of carrying out propaganda for such an organization. The French Interior Ministry said last April that Hani Ramadan had “in the past adopted behavior and made remarks posing a serious threat to public order on French soil.”

In an interview with Mizane, Hani Ramadan responded. “The reality is that there is a strong international trend of eliminating everything that is closely related to the Muslim Brotherhood. This is related to the question of the State of Israel, the project of Zionist domination and extension of its borders.”