The United States moved Friday to financially clamp down on two South Africans suspected of providing money and other support to the al-Qaida terror group.
The Treasury Department's action is against Farhad Ahmed Dockrat and Junaid Ismail Dockrat. It also targets Sniper Africa, a company in which Junaid Dockrat holds a 70 percent owner's stake, the department said.
The government's action means that any bank accounts or other financial assets belonging to the two men and the company found in the United States are frozen. Americans also are forbidden from doing business with them.
The department alleges that Farhad Dockrat in 2001 provided $62,900 to the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan to be sent along to al Akhtar Trust, an al-Qaida fundraiser based in Afghanistan.
Allegedly facilitated terror training
Junaid Dockrat is suspected of acting as an al-Qaida fundraiser, recruiter and facilitator, the government said. The government alleges that he had worked via phone and email with al-Qaida's now-deceased operations chief Hamza Rabi'a to coordinate the travel of South Africans to Pakistan so that they could be trained by al-Qaida. The government also alleges that he raised $120,000 for the terror group.
Friday's action "targets two family members that have supported al-Qaida — one by providing funds to al Akhtar Trust .... and another by facilitating travel for individuals to train in al-Qaida camps," said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
"This designation freezes the Dockrats out of the U.S. financial system and notifies the international community of the dangerous conduct in which the Dockrats are engaged," he said.