24 September 2020 12:00 am
By Yoshitha Perera
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday informed Fort Magistrate’s Court that an illegal entity in Qatar by the name ‘Qatar Charity’ had credited Rs.13mn to ‘Save the Pearl’ organisation belonging to the detained lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah for ‘terrorist activities’.
The CID said the organisation ‘Qatar Charity’ had funded to construct a building for Save the Pearls, and therefore they were investigating the charity arm. Meanwhile, the CID informed Court that “Qatar Charity” is a terrorist funding organisation and said that offences relating to funding terrorism were being probed by them.
Meanwhile, Counsel representing Mr. Hizbullah told court that a simple search on Google would have cleared any ambiguity as to what “Qatar Charity” was. He said the Charity works closely with the Sri Lankan government, the United Nations and UNICEF and many other international organistions.
The counsel said that ‘Qatar Charity’ is the main charitable arm of the Emir of Qatar and that even during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Sri Lankan Embassy in Doha worked closely with “Qatar Charity”.