Chancellor orders asset freezing against terrorist group

Chancellor Gordon Brown today instructed the Bank of England, as agent for Her Majesty’s Treasury, to direct financial institutions that any funds which they hold for or on behalf of the group Jama’at al-Tawhid Wa’al-Jihad (JTJ) must be frozen with immediate effect.

Notes to editors

1. The Chancellor has instructed the Bank of England to direct all UK financial institutions to take immediate action to freeze funds belonging to JTJ. This means that any funds held by JTJ in the UK cannot be released. It is now a criminal offence for any financial institution to hold or facilitate funds held by the JTJ.

2. The asset freeze is authorised under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001.

3. The Order gives the Treasury power to freeze the funds of persons provided certain criteria set out in the Order are met. These include that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the person is or may be either:

within Article 4(1)(a) "a person who commits, attempts to commit, facilitates or participates in the commission of acts of terrorism";
within Article 4(1)(b) “a person controlled or owned directly or indirectly by a person in (a)”; or
within Article 4(1)(c) “a person acting on behalf, or at the direction, of a person in (a)”.

4. The Treasury implement asset freezes by instructing the Bank of England, as their agent, to issue a notice directing financial institutions that any funds that they hold for or on behalf of the listed persons or entities must be frozen. The Bank Notice is published on the Bank of England’s website and emailed to some 600 financial institutions and trade associations.

5. Media enquiries should be addressed to Paul Kissack at the Treasury press office on 020 7270 5245 .

6. Non-media enquiries should be addressed to the Treasury Correspondence and Enquiry Unit on 020 7270 4558 , or by e-mail to public.enquiries@hm-treasury.gov.uk.

7. This press release and other Treasury publications and information are available on the Treasury website. If you would like Treasury press releases to be sent to you automatically by e-mail you can subscribe to this service from the press release site on the website.