08/04/05
GOVERNMENT
FILES MOTION TO DISMISS CASE AGAINST AL-HARAMAIN ISLAMIC FOUNDATION,
INC. BECAUSE INTERNATIONAL FUGITIVES HAVE NOT BEEN APPREHENDED
Karin J. Immergut, United States Attorney for the District of Oregon,
announces that the government has filed a motion to dismiss charges
currently pending against the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc.,
because two individual defendants who operated the charity have not
been apprehended and the government does not want to proceed to trial
piecemeal. If the motion is granted, the government would have the ability
to re-indict the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation if either of the two
fugitives are apprehended.
In February 2005,
a federal grand jury in Eugene, Oregon returned an indictment against
the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc., as well as two of the individuals
who ran the charity in the United States from 1999-2003. Despite pending
arrest warrants, those individual defendants, Perouz Sedaghaty and Soliman
Al-But'he, have not been apprehended.
As alleged in the
indictment, Perouz Sedaghaty and Soliman Al-But'he were two of the primary
operators of the United States branch of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation,
which was headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Sedaghaty departed the United
States for Saudi Arabia during the criminal investigation in February
2003, has not returned to the United States, and is currently a fugitive
living overseas. According to public records, Sedaghaty is the only
remaining officer of the U.S. branch of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation.
Soliman Al-But'he
is a citizen of Saudi Arabia. According to court filings, he has not
been in the United States since 2001, and is currently believed to be
a fugitive in Saudi Arabia. According to court documents, the actions
of Sedaghaty and Al-But'he gave rise to the charges against the Al-Haramain
Islamic Foundation, Inc.
Since Sedaghaty
left the United States in February 2003, Al-Haramain has had no active
operations in the United States and its properties are in the process
of being sold by the U.S. Government. In June 2004, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia dissolved the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation.
In moving to dismiss
the charges against the U.S. branch of Al-Haramain, the government stated
that it would be an inefficient waste of resources to proceed against
the shell corporation in this case until one of the individual defendants
is apprehended, and that the criminal investigation against Al-Haramain,
Sedaghaty and Al-But'he is continuing. All known assets of the Al-Haramain
Islamic Foundation in the United States have been frozen. A hearing
on the motion is currently scheduled for August 8, 2005 in Eugene.
For more information,
contact Supervisory Assistant United States Attorney Kent Robinson at
503-727-1000.
