BEIRUT: The international pressure on Lebanon and other Arab countries will not stop until these states fully comply with all anti-terrorism funding resolutions, a leading banker said Thursday.
“Lebanese banks have strengthened internal measures and each bank created a compliance division. We have also trained the staff for this purpose. But there are three important bills in Parliament pertaining to declaration of cash on the border, expanding the list of illicit money crimes and exchanging tax information that are still awaiting approval,” Joseph Torbey, head of the World Union of Arab Bankers, told participants at a conference entitled Drying Up the sources of Terrorism Funding, held at the Coral Beach Hotel and organized by the UAB.
“The international pressure on Lebanon and others will not stop until these states fully comply with the new laws and resolutions,” he said, urging Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, who was in the audience, to speed up the approval of these bills.
Torbey stressed that Lebanese and Arab banks would continue to comply with all resolutions and decisions issued by their central banks.
Other speakers and MPs who attended the two-day conference made similar appeals to Parliament.
“The Parliament is currently studying draft laws aimed at combatting terrorism financing, but the lawmakers can’t take any action now if the house of representatives does not convene soon, ” lawmaker Jamal al-Jarrah said.
The forum aims to discuss the techniques pursued by security forces in Lebanon to combat terrorism financing.
Jarrah said that three laws were currently being reviewed and discussed by the parliamentary committees, among them law 381/2001, which will be expanded to include new financial crimes including the protection of intellectual property rights. “Another law is related to money smuggling through borders which was a very regular practice prior to the spread of terrorism since Lebanon is characterized by its free banking system,” he said.
He added that the third law is related to the exchange of tax information and the fight against tax evasion.
Jarrah said legislation and security measures are not enough to fight terror financing and they should take place in parallel with development measures in order to be effective.
“We cannot fight terrorism without fighting poverty,” he said. “Fighting terrorism is a very complicated process and it is not only limited to legislative and security measures.”
Moreover, Jarrah praised the Lebanese banking sector, saying he was not worried about its performance but looked forward to ensuring its effectiveness in fighting terrorism.
He said drafting a law to fight against terror financing was a national necessity and not just a request by the international community.
Col. Ziad al-Jazzar, the head of the Private Criminal Investigation department, emphasized the need for such a law to facilitate the work of social security services.
“We have managed, to a certain extent, to control the illegal flow of cash on the borders and the Customs Department forwards any suspicious monetary operations for investigation, but the approval of the law against terrorism financing would surely facilitate such a task,” he said.
He explained that Syrian citizens frequently resorted to transferring funds through unlicensed financial institutions or third parties but the private criminal investigation department was prosecuting these people. “It is important to know who those third parties are,” he said.
He added that the private criminal investigation department has lately stopped the smuggling of historic artifacts coming from Syria.
“As for cybercrimes, our department launches media campaigns from time to time to raise awareness on the dangers of terrorism and the need to fight against it,” he said. “We have also banned access to Web pages used to send messages to people in Lebanon in a bid to persuade them to get involved in terrorist acts.”
Meanwhile, Tarek Zahran, executive director in charge of the compliance unit at the Special Investigation Commission, said terrorism financing before the emergence of ISIS used to take place by raising funds from legitimate sources including charities and legitimate business.
“They also occurred by raising funds from criminal proceeds such as arms trafficking, kidnapping for ransom or checks fraud,” he added.
Zahran explained that ISIS’ financing of terrorism was taking place through various means, including but not limited to bank robbery, human trafficking, control of oil and gas reservoirs, extortion, taxation and other illegal methods.
Zahran said Lebanon had already introduced robust regulatory controls covering money dealers and hawala operators. “Lebanon has also worked on raising awareness through the Lebanese National Committee on suppressing terrorism financing,” he added. “But we still need the Parliament to approve laws to fight terrorism financing,” he added.
