Swiss firm shuts down after terrorism probe

Nada Management's offices in Lugano Keystone Archive

A Swiss company suspected of funding terrorism says it has been forced to close down due to the bad publicity.

Youssef Nada, founder and senior executive of the Lugano-based Nada Management Organisation, formerly known as al-Taqwa, said the company had already gone into liquidation.

“We have to do this. What do you expect after all that [attention]?” he said.

Swiss officials froze 24 Nada bank accounts and searched company officials’ homes and offices on November 7 – the same day that the organisation was accused by Washington of financing terrorism.

Nada’s two financial directors, Youssef Mustafa Nada and Ali Ghaleb Himmat, were detained for questioning but later released.

Swiss prosecutors have yet to announce whether any charges will be brought against the company, which has repeatedly denied any connection with Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.

Criminal investigation

“No charges has been filed so far but [it] is still the subject of a criminal investigation,” said a spokesman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Bern.

Nada, an Italian citizen, said allegations that his company may have had links to extremist groups were “really nonsense” and said he was confident his name would eventually be cleared.

“We are sure after these [investigations] they are making that they were not correct to do it. They were misled, all of them, from America to Switzerland,” he said.

“It is sad that Switzerland has been involved in that [probe] because it ruined their reputation in a lot of circles.”

Nada insisted Swiss authorities had bowed to international pressure to raid the company even though a preliminary Swiss investigation led by the deputy federal prosecutor Claude Nicati had failed to establish any terrorist links. Nicati travelled to Washington at the end of November in pursuit of new evidence.

Nada said the company being wound up had no debt or creditors, but could not work in the current atmosphere. Nada added that he had several other businesses that were unaffected by the probe.

swissinfo with agencies