(Rapaport… December 7, 2004) The Antwerp criminal court sentenced on December 6 diamond dealers Aziz Nassour and Samih Ossaily to six and three years in prison respectively for smuggling “blood diamonds”.
Ossaily, 38, and Nassour, 43, were convicted of importing into Antwerp four years ago diamonds from conflict areas in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo respectively. They were also found guilty of fraud and of participating in a criminal organization led by Nassour, a Lebanese resident. Charges of breaking arms laws were dropped due to lack of evidence.
The court also fined the group $81.77 million for not declaring the diamonds to customs.
Six other members of the organization were sentenced to between four and thirty months in jail, although additional charges of money laundering were dropped.
In November 2001, the Washington Post said Ossaily and Nassour were buying smuggled diamonds from Sierra Leone through an al Qaeda middleman. At the time, Ossaily, a naturalized Belgian originally from Sierra Leone, denied the allegations, saying he had no connection to Osama bin Laden or his network and had never smuggled diamonds through Antwerp.
|
|
|
|
|