Pakistan Jails Hafiz Saeed for terror financing

Pakistan Jails Hafiz Saeed for terror financing

• Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people and injured hundreds more, has been sentenced to jail in Pakistan for five­and­a­half years on terror finance charges
• Saeed, a UN­designated terrorist and head of the Jamaat­ud­Dawa ( JuD), was found guilty of “being part of a banned terrorist outfit” and for “having the illegal property” by an anti­terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore.
• The ATC sentenced him and his close aide, Zafar Iqbal, to five­-and-­a-­half years each and imposed a fine of ₹15,000 in each case. A total of 11 years sentence will run concurrently.
• The FIR against Saeed and his associates was registered last July on charges of terror financing at the Counter­Terrorism Department (CTD) in Gujranwala. 
• Saeed, Abdul Ghaffar, Hafiz Masood, Ameer Hamza, and Iqbal were indicted in December 2019.
• This is the first time that Saeed, who has a $10 million bounty on his head by the U.S. government, has been formally convicted of an offense.

FATF

• The sentencing comes days ahead of a crucial meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organization combating money laundering and terror financing, that has put Pakistan on its grey list.
• The FATF blacklist, now called the "Call for action" was the common shorthand description for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of "Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories" (NCCTs). The FATF blacklist or OECD blacklist has been issued by the FATF of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 2000, and lists countries which OECD judges to be non-cooperative in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, calling them "Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories" (NCCTs). Although non-appearance on the blacklist was perceived to be a mark of approbation for offshore financial centers (or "tax havens") who are sufficiently well regulated to meet all of the FATF's criteria, in practice, the list included countries that did not operate as offshore financial centers. The FATF updates the blacklist regularly, adding or deleting entries.
• What is referred to as the "FATF grey list" in media is now formally called "Other monitored jurisdictions"
Source: The Hindu