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Southeast Asia Trio Designated By OFAC Over Allegations Of Ties To ISIS
Three men the United States government allege to be ISIS operatives now find themselves subject to a designation by the Treasury Department.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced last week the designation of Mohamad Rafi Udin, Mohammed Karim Yusop Faiz, and Mohammad Reza Lahaman Kiram based upon allegations that the three have been recruiting extensively for the terrorist organization throughout Southeast Asia.
According to OFAC, the three men appeared in a video purporting to show the beheading of ISIS captives. Allegedly involved in terrorist activities for the last decade, Udin is accused of arriving in Syria four years ago and appearing in the beheading video, then calling upon Filipinos to join ISIS and pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.
Faiz allegedly appeared in the same beheading video, echoing the recruiting call made by Udin. The United States government said he too arrived in Syria in 2014 after being released from custody in the Philippines. He served a nine-year sentence in prison for convictions of illegal possession of explosives and weapons.
Filipino Kiram was the third alleged ISIS member to appear on the above-referenced video, also allegedly conducting an execution and repeating a recruiting statement. Police in the Philippines accuse him of masterminding a bus bombing in 2012 and training militants to a group linked to ISIS two years later. Officials say he emigrated to Syria in 2015 with his wife and daughter in order to join in with the cause.
The trio’s designation means that they are barred to exercise their property rights in any possessions in United States jurisdiction, and all United States citizens are barred from knowingly conducting business with them.
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