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Wallace Ruzvidzo
Herald Reporter
BANK accounts in Zimbabwe of those listed by the United Nations of suspected terrorist activities will now be frozen without delay by the Director-General of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Financial Intelligence Unit under a Statutory Instrument gazetted yesterday.
Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe, gazetted the Statutory Instrument as part of broader efforts to combat terrorism activities in line with the directions of the United Nations Security Council.
“Where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs receives Notice of United Nations list of any addition, removal or other amendment made to the current United Nations Consolidated List of designated persons, it shall forward the updated list to the Financial Intelligence Unit without delay.”
The regulations make it clear that without delay means that the funds or assets are frozen within 24 hours of the UN notice being received by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The FIU Director-General must then, and without giving prior notice to any named individual or entity, make an order freezing all the funds and other assets that are owned or controlled by the designated person or entity, and not just those that can be tied to a particular act, plot or threat of proliferation.
This includes those assets wholly or jointly owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by designated persons or entities or derived or generated from funds or other assets owned or controlled directly or indirectly by designated persons or entities, plus those assets of people or entities acting on behalf of, or at the direction of a designated person or entity.The Director-General has to make public the order and make sure it is disseminated to all banks and others who hold the accounts or assets of the listed person or entity. Those banks and others must then make sure that no funds whatsoever flow to sellers of weapons, and report back to the director general on what frozen funds and assets they hold.
Every person, financial institution or designated non-financial business or profession must freeze any funds or other assets known to be owned or controlled directly or indirectly by any person or entity designated by the UN without delay, and without prior notice to any designated person or entity as soon as they are told by the director general.
The freeze order remains in force until the person or entity is removed from the UN list.
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