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UK assets of Islamic charity frozen

Bank accounts of an Islamic charity based in central London have been frozen by the British Charity Commission after allegations that it has close links to Osama bin Laden.

The charity, the International Development Foundation, has two bank accounts, one for overseas payments and one for the UK, which are said to contain about £250,000.

The IDF was named in a French parliamentary report last year as having "points of contact" with al-Qaeda, bin Laden's terrorist organisation.

The Charity Commission began an investigation into the IDF in October 2001 but was forced to freeze its bank accounts last week and issue a court order under the Charities Act, demanding full disclosure of its accounts and records.

"Following two meetings with the charity it is clear that they will not co-operate fully with the commission's inquiry," a spokesman for the Charity Commission said.

The commission has set a deadline for January 16 for the IDF to comply with the order, or its trustees - most of whom are members of the wealthy bin Mahfouz family from Saudi Arabia - will be found in contempt of court and liable to arrest.

The IDF is the first charity to have faced such an investigation since the attacks in America on September 11.

The Charity Commission believes that the IDF, which was founded by Sedco, a powerful Saudi corporation, is connected to Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi businessman who is said to have entertained Osama bin Laden at a mansion he owned in Buckinghamshire.

"From what we have seen, Kahlid bin Mahfouz is not the sort of person we would want connected to a charity in this country," a source close to the investigation told The Times daily in London.

He added that Mohammed, Saleh, Abdelelah and Ahmed bin Mahfouz, all brothers and trustee of the charity, denied any knowledge of Kahlid when first approached by British investors.

"But we then discovered that he is also their brother. That was what led us to believe that they were not being entirely straight with us."

Kahlid bin Mahfouz, who was granted Irish nationality in 1999, is believed to be under investigation by the Saudi authorities for alleged links to al-Qaeda. He is also alleged to have had connections to BCCI, the British bank used by the CIA to pay bin Laden during the Afghan war with the former Soviet Union.

The four bin Mahfouz brothers who run the IDF are based in Saudi Arabia and have registered addresses at Sedco, the Saudi Economic and Development Company that controls the IDF and which also has offices in Curzon Street in London.

The bin Mahfouz family is one of the most powerful in Saudi Arabia, with an estimated fortune of £2.5 billion, the report said.

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