The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in collaboration with Canada, has imposed sanctions on the Samidoun Palestine Prisoner Solidarity Network or “Samidoun”, a fake charity that acts as an international fundraising organisation for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organisation. In addition, Samidoun has also been banned by Germany.
“Organizations like Samidoun masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality divert funds for much-needed assistance to support terrorist groups,” said Acting Under Secretary of the US Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley T. Smith
The US and Canadian governments revealed that Samidoun, a Vancouver-based organization, is involved in fundraising for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The organization claims to support Palestinian prisoners, but in practice, Samidoun provides financial support for the sanctioned PFLP.
SanctionsLists.org notes that Samidoon uses Telegram messenger, which is particularly popular in Russia and Iran, to publish its news. The main Samidouns channel on Telegram has 6,680 subscribers.