US to put SA duo on terror list - diplomats
January 25 2007 at 01:49PM
The United States is expected this week to place two South African Muslims on its list of al-Qaeda suspects and will freeze their assets, diplomats in South Africa said on Thursday.
The United States is also pushing to have Junaid Docrat and his cousin Farhad Docrat placed on a United Nations list of suspects tied to Osama bin Laden's group as well as Afghanistan's Taliban.
"Their names will be listed with the (US) Treasury Department soon," one of the diplomats said.
Junaid Docrat, a Johannesburg dentist, and Farhad Docrat, a cleric who lives near Pretoria, have denied the allegations by Washington. Their lawyer has asked the United States for evidence backing its allegations.
South Africa, which has a sizable Muslim population, has asked the United Nations to delay placing the Docrats on its list and has asked for talks with US authorities on the matter.
The US government maintains that al-Qaeda operatives are in Somalia, Sudan and North Africa and says that fundraising and recruiting by the group has become a serious worry in South Africa, Nigeria and the trans-Saharan region.
If the two men were to be added to the UN list, South Africa would be legally required to freeze their bank accounts and ban them from travelling.
In raising what amounts to an objection to such a listing, South Africa's Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad noted this week that his country was exercising its right to question the proposals but was not soft on fighting terrorism.
