Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi
Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi is a businessman who has been designated a terrorist by the American government. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi was involved in multiple lawsuits concerning his alleged involvement in that as well as other terrorist activities.
The legal actions taken by Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi commenced in December of 2001. At this time, he filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of being labeled a terrorist suspect by the American government. In this lawsuit, Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi also challenged the freezing of his assets by the European Union on the grounds that this had occurred without due process of the law. In 2004, his request to have his terrorist label removed was rejected by the American government, which cited numerous evidence of his funding of terrorist activities. The European Union also rejected his request to be delisted in 2005.
In November of 2002, Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi was added to the list of defendants in a lawsuit that had been initiated in August of that year by relatives of victims of the events of September 11. The case would eventually be heard in Federal Criminal Court in Switzerland. In it, Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi was charged with funding the construction of student housing at a Yemen university while aware that the money being contributed was being repurposed for use in the attacks of September 11. In 2005, the Federal Criminal Court found Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi innocent of these charges.
In 2007 Switzerland concluded a six year investigation regarding Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi and concluded that he was not a terrorist. He was therefore removed from the list of terrorists maintained separately by Switzerland, which is not a member nation of the European Union.
In 2008, Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi was successful in obtaining a ruling from the European Court of Justice that overturned sanctions which had been placed against him. The court agreed with the claims of the attorneys of Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi that the sanctions had been undertaken without due process, including failure to disclose the steps being taken or to share the evidence being taken into consideration. Following this ruling, the European Union provided Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi with a summary of the evidence against him and reinstated the sanctions.
In 2009, Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi filed a lawsuit against the American Department of Treasury, again alleging that the steps that agency took to freeze his assets ignored his right to due process. That same year, he filed a second challenge to the European Union's sanctions. The European Court of Justice ruled in his favor, citing the lack of due process.
In March of 2012, the lawsuit filed by Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi against the Department of Treasury was dismissed. In issuing this ruling, the presiding judge noted that the evidence assembled against Yasin Abdullah Ezzedine al-Qadi was in excess of 2,000 pages justified his being labeled a terrorist.
