Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (; AHIF) was a charity foundation, based in Saudi Arabia. Under various names it had branches in Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Comoros, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Tanzania, and the United States, and "at its height" raised between $40 and $50 million a year in contributions worldwide. However, US intelligence officials believed it had reopened branches under new names.

In September 2004, the U.S. Department of the Treasury alleged that its investigation had found "direct links" between the foundation and Osama bin Laden.

History

The charity was founded by Shiek Aqil Abdul-Aziz Al-Aqil, a one time official in the Saudi Arabian ministry of education. In the late part of the 20th century, and the first decade of the 21st century, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation was the most ubiquitous Saudi charity operating in and around the conflict zones of the Arab and greater Islamic world.

The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation was founded in the Pakistani city of Karachi in 1988 with the aim of religious propagation and charity, but moved its headquarters to Riyadh in 1992. It set up a branch in Somalia in 1992 also. In September 2001 AHIF was named a Specially Designated Terrorist Entity by the US government.

In 2002 the US and Saudi Arabia "jointly designated the Bosnian and Somalian branches of AHIF as financiers of terror, although as of 2008 critics have raised questions as to whether the Saudi government "actually closed the offshore branches of AHIF". According to author Jimmy Gurul, the US government had evidence that "AHIF offices and representatives operating throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe provided financial and logistical support" to groups "designated foreign terrorist organizations by the US State Department", including al-Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Jemaah Islamiyah, Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya, Lashkar e-Taibah, and HAMAS. Finally, later in 2004 the US designated the entire entity, including its headquarters in Saudi Arabia. According to Al Jazeera, Al-Haramain was among a number of Saudi-based charities accused by the United States, of “financing terrorism” after the September 11th 2001 terror attacks.

The foundation also undertook building and supervising mosques, schools, Islamic centers, scholarships for students in poor Muslim countries, organizing Shariah courses, distribution of Ramadan breakfasts and blankets in the winter. As part of its activities, the foundation also distributed food, clothes and medicine for victims of wars and natural calamities all over the world.

Financing terror attacks

East Africa

According to the Associated Press, Al-Qaeda provided funds to a suspect in the November 2002 bombing of an Israeli hotel in Kenya, using sympathizers inside Al-Haramain and other Islamic charities.(QE.A.4.01). </blockquote>

United States

The U.S. branch of AHF was established in 1997. As of 2004 it had headquarters in Ashland, Oregon and an office in Springfield, Missouri.

The U.S. government accused Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation of Ashland, Oregon of sending $150,000 through Saudi Arabia to fund terrorist activities and support Chechen mujahideen under the guise of humanitarian aid.

On 19 February 2004, the assets of the U.S. branch were blocked by the US Treasury Department pending investigation, the results of which showed "direct links between the U.S. branch and Usama bin Laden". On 9 September 2004 Treasury announced "the designation" of the U.S. branch of Al Haramain along with one of its directors, Suliman Al-Buthe.

On 19 June 2008, U.S. Department of the Treasury "designated" the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHF) "for having provided financial and material support to al Qaida, as well as a wide range of designated terrorists and terrorist organizations." As a consequence, an "assets held by any office of the AHF organization under U.S. jurisdiction [were] frozen and U.S. persons [were] prohibited from engaging in any transactions with AHF."

Al-Haramain suit

On 28 February 2006 the American branch of the foundation filed a lawsuit against President George W. Bush, the NSA, FBI, and several other US officials. The suit asserted that the Bush administration had circumvented the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by authorizing warrantless wiretaps. They asserted that the President lacked the authority to authorize wiretaps that circumvented the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Three individuals whose conversations were intercepted, Suliman al-Buthe, Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, learned of the eavesdropping when U.S. officials accidentally delivered logs of phone calls to them. In September 2011, an appeals court ruled that United States officials correctly designated the charity as supporting terrorism, but found the Treasury department's Office of Foreign Assets Control improperly seized the charity's assets using a "blocking order" to freeze them without a warrant supported by probable cause, violating the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures, and that they also violated the charity's procedural due process rights by failing to give a post-seizure explanation of the basis for the seizure.

In 2010 the charity's founder Pirouz Sedaghaty, also known as Pete Seda, was convicted of tax fraud and conspiracy against the United States for allegedly filing a false tax return in order to conceal Al-Haramain's funding of Islamic militants in Chechnya. However, his conviction was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2013 after the court found that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence, provided inaccurate summaries of classified material, and paid a key witness to testify against Seda. In August 2013, the group filed a petition with a committee of the United Nations Security Council to remove the nonprofit from its list of entities associated with al-Qaida.

Thomas H. Nelson of Welches, Oregon, another Foundation lawyer, filed the lawsuit. Court records show he filed a motion to place the relevant material under seal.

On 31 March 2010, US District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the Bush administration should have gotten warrants for its wiretaps of Al Haramain.

In June 2020 the court dismissed the indictment and arrest warrant of Al-Buthe on motion of the United States Department of Justice, which stated that such dismissal was "in the interests of justice."

Balkans

Al-Haramain funded and supported a Bosnian mujahideen battalion in Zenica Bosnia. ImIn Albania, a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Najjar, joined al-Haramain's Tirana office in 1993. He was apprehended in Albania and extradited to Egypt in June 1998 for an attempted bombing of the Khan el-Khalili Souq (market) in Cairo in 1997.

Russia

Although not necessarily alleging attacks against civilians, the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) accused Al-Haramain (among other charities) of operating for years in Chechnya (see Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya) and Dagestan, financing Chechen resistance against occupation . The FSB accused Al-Haramain of wiring $1 million to Chechen rebels in 1999 and of arranging to buy 500 heavy weapons for them from Taliban units. Russia designates Al-Haramain as a terrorist organization since 2003.

Pressure to close

On 22 January 2004, in a joint press conference, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow and Adel al-Jubeir, Foreign Affairs Advisor to then Crown Prince Abdullah, called upon the United Nations Sanctions Committee to designate four branch offices of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation as financial supporters of terrorism. As a result, Al-Haramain was folded into the National Commission. Aqeel Al-Aqeel was then removed from his position of the chairmanship of the foundation. In 2014, Aqeel Al-Aqeel was acquitted of all charges brought personally against him by the Riyadh Appeal court, though the foundation is still banned.