Switzerland reinforces Taliban sanctions

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, is among those blacklisted Keystone Archive

The Swiss authorities have reinforced sanctions against the Taliban by adding 60 names to those banned from dealing with Switzerland.

The updated list of names includes individuals and organisations suspected of having links with the Afghan regime, taking part in international terrorism or financing it, according the economics ministry.

Suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network were already among 169 names listed since April.

The United Nations Security Council supplied the new names. They include a number of businesses dealing in honey in Yemen, which is suspected of having links to bin Laden, as well as the Export Promotion Bank of Afghanistan.

Frozen funds

Switzerland began applying UN sanctions against the Afghan regime in April, when it compiled the original list of names.

Funds or property owned by the listed people and organisations in Switzerland have been frozen.

Institutions managing these funds or properties have an obligation to declare them to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, which oversees the application of international sanctions.

The Swiss authorities have been actively searching for terrorist funds since the September 11 attacks in the United States, but have failed so far to turn up anything.

swissinfo with agencies