Gulf News
Dubai: Bahrain’s High Criminal Court on Tuesday postponed the money laundering case against Eisa Qasim, a local religious leader, and two others to May 7, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ahmad Al Quraishi said.
The Public Prosecution had charged the suspects with “committing the crimes of unlicensed fund-raising, money laundering and carrying out financial transaction to conceal the source of their illegal funds.”
The charges are within the confines of the laws regarding fund-raising for public purposes that requires fund-raisers to obtain prior permission from the competent authority, Al Quraishi said, Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported.
He added that the case was a regulatory issue that did not impact on religious duties in any way, he said.
Several people had said the case amounted to an attack on the Shiite sect, but the prosecution denied the claims, insisting that there were no legal reason or ground to exempt the suspects from complying with the law on fund-raising.
The investigations revealed that the suspects had used the illegally raised funds in private transactions conducted by one of them, which constituted a money laundering crime, the prosecution said.
