Cryptocurrency16.01.2025

South African arrested over R11,500 Bitcoin donation fights terrorism accusations

A 35-year-old South African man arrested in January on terrorist financing charges, Ziyadh Hoorzook, appeared in the Lichtenburg Magistrates Court on Wednesday, 15 January, to argue that he should be granted bail.

Hoorzook was arrested on 3 January 2025 for a R11,500 Bitcoin donation to an organization called al-Sadaqah that he performed with South African cryptocurrency exchange Luno on 30 November 2017.

Police said a years-long investigation by the Crimes Against the State team of the Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation established that Horzook had broken South Africa’s counter-terrorist financing laws.

Specifically, Hoorzook is accused of contravening the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act (POCDATARA).

The state prosecutor, Rodger Mareume, opposed Hoorzook’s bail, arguing that his offence was severe and that he knew al-Sadaqah was helping to fund terrorism in Syria.

News24 reported that Mareume told the court that U.S. authorities had established that al-Sadaqah had helped to fund al-Qaeda and affiliated foreign terror organizations.

He also contended that Hoorzook was aware from the beginning that he was donating money to help support terrorist causes.

The prosecution pointed to al-Sadaqah’s digital advertisements found on Hoorzook’s devices as evidence of this.

They also said that one of the postings al-Sadaqah made on messaging service Telegram asked people to donate anonymously with cryptocurrency to support “the mujahideen in Syria with weapons, financial aid, and other projects assisting the jihad”.

However, Hoorzook’s lawyer, Mohammed Razak, said the state was mistaken.

He said al-Sadaqah’s alleged ties to terrorist organizations and warnings that it was a terrorist funding group only happened long after Hoorzook made his donation.

He said the transaction was an innocent donation to what Hoorzook believed was a charity organization.

In an affidavit read out by Razak last week, Hoorzook said he recalled several drives to support the people of Syria at the time as they were subjected to human rights violations.

He said he vaguely recalled an Islamic figure indicating that al-Sadaqah was the most appropriate organization to donate to because it directly dispersed aid amid the conflict.

Razak said on Wednesday that the state’s case was weak and had failed to establish whether al-Sadaqah was a terrorist organization, News24 reported.

He also told the court that Hoorzook was not accused of being affiliated with al-Qaeda but of making a donation that the state believed was terrorist financing.

The case was postponed another week to 22 January, when judgment will be handed down.

Godfrey Lebeya, head of The Hawks

Hoorzook first appeared in the Lichtenburg Magistrates Court on Monday, 6 January 2025, after being arrested the Friday before.

His bail hearing was set for 10 January and has been postponed twice before, with hearings happening on 13 and 15 January.

In an affidavit read by his lawyer, Hoorzook told the court that he intended to plead not guilty and that the case against him had been exaggerated.

“The state has misaligned me to a narrative which is factually untrue,” he said.

However, the Hawks investigating officer, Warrant Officer John Sithole, said the state’s case was watertight. He warned that if Hoorzook is granted bail, he could attempt to evade trial.

Sithole told the court that he discovered a substantial volume of evidence suggesting that Hoorzook knew his funds would aid a terrorist organization to commit further terror-related activities in Syria.

He said the Hawks found videos, images, and articles containing extremist material that promoted violence on the accused’s electronic devices, as well as speeches by former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Sithole testified that material found by their forensic laboratory on Hoorzook’s devices included three al-Sadaqah advertisements that showed he had knowledge of the group’s activities.

He said the adverts clearly show that al-Sadaqah is not a charity organization and that Hoorzook knew the funds would be used for terror activities.

In September 2018, the U.S. House Committee on Finances heard that al-Sadaqah began soliciting donations in late 2017 to fund Islamic State fighters in Syria.

Yaya Fanusie, speaking in his former capacity as Director of Analysis for the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF) at the time, explained to the committee that “sadaqah” is an Arabic word for charitable giving.

“We monitored al-Sadaqah’s social media channels and analyzed their bitcoin address, which it would highlight regularly asking followers to donate anonymously with bitcoin,” Fanusie stated.

“In its initial campaign, it sought $750 for camp reinforcements. Within weeks, we noticed the address received $685 worth of bitcoin.”

Fanusie said the group continued requesting funding for logistical supplies, but only received a handful of bitcoin transactions, none of them as large as the $685 early in the campaign.

This amount is noteworthy, as it suggests that Hoorzook’s single donation represented most of the money al-Sadaqah raised in its 2017 campaign.

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