Tunis: A Tunisian parliamentary bloc has called for an investigation into reports about the alleged transfer of significant sums of money from Qatar to finance illegal activities in Tunisia and abroad through institutions under the Tunisian banking system.

In a written question, the bloc asked the acting minister of finance to provide answers based on investigations with the Central Bank of Tunisia, the Housing Bank and the Central Bank’s Financial Analysis Committee.

The Free Bloc insisted that the case be promptly referred to the judiciary if the investigations were to conclude there had been suspicious criminal activities.

“We cannot ignore there are forces that are supporting extremists and terrorists and took them to conflict zones, which means the existence of large amounts of money that were used to fund the process,” Mohammad Teroudi, an MP from the Free Bloc said, quoted by media in the North African country on Thursday.

“The situation has been further crystallised following the severance by several Arab countries of their diplomatic relations with Qatar and the emergence of the international position on the suspicious role of the country in supporting terrorism in the Arab region, which should be investigated in view of the presence of several associations that receive huge funds from Doha.”

Reports have insisted that tens of billions of dollars have been used to fund illegal activities, he added.

“We call directly on the government to launch an investigation and open the doors wide open away from political tendencies to determine responsibilities and identify the networks that were actively working on implicating the Tunisian state and people in acts that undermine the efforts of the state institutions to achieve economic progress and political stability,” Teroudi said.

According to the reports, the funds were transferred from Qatar through a retired Qatari general in Tunisia.

A spokesperson for the Libyan army has recently said that a Qatari colonel in the Qatari intelligence service had transferred funds from his account in a bank in the capital Tunis to a bank in Tataouine in the south of the country, near the Libyan borders, from where they will be smuggled into Libya and used to support terrorists.

Sofian Salti, the first assistant to the public prosecutor in Tunis, said that the case allegedly implicating Tunisian and Qatari nationals in “suspicious financial activities” was being investigated since 2014.

“The recent statement by Libyan Colonel Ahmad Al Mesmari that a Qatari named Salim Ali Al Jarboui transferred funds in Tunisia to Libya to support terrorist groups is the subject of a judicial and investigative research since 2014,” Salti said on Saturday, quoted by the official news agency TAP.

“The Public Prosecutor’s Office has authorised the launch of an investigation since the Central Bank governor, as head of the Financial Analysis Committee, learned that a Qatari citizen had received a financial transfer in the Housing Bank branch in Tataouine of around eight million Tunisian dinars and withdrew 550,000 euros [Dh2.26 million] from his bank account.”

Salti said that five people, four Tunisians and one Qatari, are being investigated over money laundering charges and providing funds and supports for people and groups involved in terrorist activities.