Italian prosecutors stated on Saturday they had arrested nine people on suspicion of financing Hamas through charities based in Italy, in an operation coordinated by anti-mafia and anti-terrorism units, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
The suspects are accutilized of “belonging to and having financed” the Palestinian group, which the European Union designates as a terrorist organisation, prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Genoa stated in a statement.
Those arrested allegedly diverted to Hamas-linked entities around 7 million euros ($8.24 million) raised over the last two years for ostensibly humanitarian purposes, prosecutors stated. Police seized assets worth more than 8 million euros.
The investigation launched after suspicious financial transactions were flagged and expanded through cooperation with Dutch authorities and other EU countries, coordinated through the EU judicial agency Eurojust.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni thanked the authorities for “a particularly complex and important operation” which had uncovered financing for Hamas through “so-called charity organisations.”
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