 THE Lebanese political leader with alleged links to Hezbollah Sheik Taj al din al-Hilali claims he gave $10,000 has denied personally receiving the money. Bilal Shaaban said Sheik Hilali may have put him as the recipient of the cash raised in Australia for war victims in Lebanon because it was a convenient way of accounting for the money, The Australian newspaper reported.
| "I know nofing! Tell them, Ho-gan!" |
Sheik Hilali made handwritten records of the donation to Sheik Shaaban's radio station on Rydges Hotel notepaper, obtained by the newspaper. “Not one cent, not one penny went to me,” said Sheik Shaaban.
| How much went to pay the tab at the Rydges? |
Sheik Shaaban, the head of the Islamic Unity Movement in Lebanon, also said his organisation's radio station received no money from Sheik Hilali. “The radio station is licensed with the Government - it is not a pirate radio station,” he said. “We had two radio stations that got hit and as far as I know we did not receive any donations to fix them.”
The Australian Federal Police is investigating $70,000 raised by the Sydney-based Lebanese Muslim Association and handed out in Lebanon by Sheik Alhilali. LMA president Tom Zreika has said allegations have been made in the Muslim community that Sheik Hilali gave some of the money to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. But Sheik Shaaban told of how he accompanied the mufti to war-torn villages in southern Lebanon. “(He was) giving them (villagers) cash payments of $200-$300 Australian dollars,” Sheik Shaaban told the paper.
| But he didn't get any receipts, either. |
|