SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that the U.S. government rightly designated the Oregon branch of a Saudi Arabia-based charity as a terrorist organization, but improperly seized the group’s assets.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday the Treasury Department correctly placed the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation on an official list of terrorist organizations in 2004 because the group had financed terrorist activities in Chechnya and Albania.
The department also designated one of the Ashland, Oregon-based group’s board members as linked to terrorism.
The foundation was disbanded after the department froze its assets.
The unanimous three-judge panel found the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control violated the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure by improperly using a “blocking order” to freeze the charity’s assets without a warrant.