Muslim Prisoners Support charity expelled from Register

Governance | Tania Mason | 7 Jul 2011

The Al Ikhlas Foundation, also known as the Muslim Prisoners Support Group, has been removed from the Register of Charities by the Charity Commission after it appeared to stop operating.

The Commission had already conducted two statutory inquiries into the Foundation and banned trustee Mohammed al Ghabra from the board because of suspected links to al-Qaida. It had also given the organisation directions on how to improve its governance and manage its risks.

But since then the Charity Commission could find no evidence that the Foundation was still operating and so removed it from the Register on 11 May on the grounds that it ceased to operate.

Following the removal, another person associated with the organisation has contacted the Commission to advise that the funds that remained in its bank accounts - just over £2,200 - would be dispersed among other charities. The Commission will monitor the accounts to ensure this is done within three months.

Al Ghabra, a Syrian-born British national, was branded a ‘designated person’ under United Nations and United States terrorism orders in 2006 and accused of sending British recruits to Pakistan for training.

The South London-based charity’s aims were to provide all Muslim prisoners - including those charged with terrorism-related offences - with legal instruction, financial, family and religious support.

After Al Ghabra had been removed as trustee, the Commission continued to investigate the governance of the charity and found other areas of concern too – one of which was that the charity sent money to prisoners but did not know how they used it, and so couldn’t account for all the funds it had spent.

Directory: Charity Commission

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