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US-LEBANON-HEZBOLLAH
Key Hezbollah financier pleads guilty in US
WASHINGTON, Dec 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Lebanese businessman Kassim Tajideen,
designated by US authorities as an important financial supporter of
Hezbollah, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to evading sanctions
against him, a Justice Department statement said.
Tajideen, 63, pleaded guilty before a Washington court and faces five years
in prison and a forfeiture of $50 million if his deal with prosecutors is
accepted.
He was named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2009 by the
Treasury Department over his links to Hezbollah, a Shiite political party and
militant group in Lebanon.
Tajideen has been detained since extradition to the United States in March
2017 after his arrest overseas, the statement added.
“We are going to keep targeting Hezbollah and other terrorist groups and
their supporters, and we are going to keep winning,” said Acting Attorney
General Matthew Whitaker, who hailed the guilty plea.
Hezbollah has been a US designated terrorist group since 1997 and fights
alongside the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s
civil war.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0958 hrs