❗️Five charged in France over alleged Hamas funding through aid groups

Five people have been charged in France over allegations that they sent funds through humanitarian organizations to a third party seeking to raise money for Hamas, the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said Saturday.

The PNAT told AFP that the five were detained on Tuesday by investigators from the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), which is overseeing the investigation.

A judicial inquiry was opened on Friday into “financing a terrorist organization, in this case Hamas,” an offense that, if established, could also constitute a breach of trust and money laundering linked to a 'terrorist' group.

Three of the suspects were placed under judicial supervision at the PNAT’s request.

The prosecutor’s office said it “requested the pretrial detention of the two association presidents,” with one “was placed in pretrial detention pending a postponed adversarial hearing he had requested,” according to the public prosecutor’s office.

“My client participated in fundraising efforts for exclusively humanitarian purposes; his detention would be scandalous,” his lawyer, Lucie Simon, told AFP.

The second association president was placed “under judicial supervision,” the PNAT said.