Denmark: Financing terrorism in Somalia

Denmark: Financing terrorism in Somalia

The Somali rebel militia and terrorist movement al-Shabaab also has sympathizers in Odense, where they have collected money for the organization, according to reports from the Somali community, confirmed by Poul Hansen of the Odense municipality.

Poul Hansens says there are a few older shadow-men among the Somalis, who are hard to get a hold of. They use the Koran and Islam to try and put others in place. They sympathize with al-Shabaab, but operate in secret. They don't openly profess they support al-Shabaab and therefore it's not easy to spot them. Fortunately, he says, a large portion of the Somalis in the city keep their distance from them.

"These people try to score some easy points with some of the youth by telling them that they are unwanted in Denmark. 'therefore your only option is to do what we say - then you'll get to paradise'. I don't know who they are, but once in a while they try to missionize with their extremist views - often among the most vulnerable and week. And it's then a problem," says Abdirashid Abukar Abdi, integration employee at the Odense municipality and member of the Somali Network in Denmark.

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Danish authorities are certain that some of the many millions of Kroner which Somalis in Denmark send to Somalia every year goes to terrorism. But until now there hasn't been a single case of terrorism-financing against Somalis in Denmark, reports Danish newspaper Politiken.

Jakob Scharf, heads of the Police Intelligence Service (PET) said in a statement to Politiken about PET's investigations that people in Denmark of Somali background deal with economic (...) support for foreign terrorist organizations. PET did not want to elaborate on that statement.

Cases of terror financing should be prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime (SØK), populary called the finance police. Public Prosecutor Jens Madsen says that SØK hasn't prosecuted in cases of terror financing related to Somalia, or in which Somalis have been involved.

Fund-raising for Somalia is ongoing in many countries, but there is not much information about the extent of terror-financing. In Norway, a Somali was charged in the fall based on the terrorism law for transferring a large sum to his homeland.

Jens Madsen says that SØK has data from Danish banking institutions about the transfer of very large amounts where Somalis are involved, through so-called omnibus accounts, but that SØK don't have information about terrorist links to the transfers.

Sources: Kristeligt Dagblad, Fyens Stiftstidende (Danish)