Terrorism, interrogation of Hannoun's nephew: 'He put me in touch with Hamas'

Mohammad Hannoun avoids the first real confrontation with magistrates. At the interrogation of guarantee he will avail himself of the faculty of not answering: today, in front of the judge for the preliminary investigations, the Jordanian architect arrested by the prosecutors of Genoa and by the DNA on charges of financing Hamas (7 million euro from 2001 to today) will limit himself to making spontaneous statements. A side step, at least according to the defence.

Lawyers Emanuele Tambuscio and Fabio Sommovigo immediately place a stake, which sounds more like a strategic manoeuvre. "There are more than 10,000 pages of deeds," says Tambuscio, "which must be studied". Translated: before exposing themselves, they want to see through to the end what is in the file. Because the heart of the investigation - in addition to the findings of the Digos and the Genoa Finance Police - is material that has arrived from abroad: documents sent by the Israeli authorities, acquired during military operations in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack on 7 October 2023. Papers that, according to the lawyers, might not even be usable because they were created during military operations by the Israeli army.

Such as a report from 2013, an interrogation by the Israeli police of Muhammad Awad, Hannoun's nephew who is now 38 years old, acquired in a manner that has yet to be clarified. These are statements made in the context of court proceedings and therefore, in that context, Awad assumes the trial position of a witness.

According to Awad, the uncle did not limit himself to funding charities for the Palestinian people. On the contrary, his nephew was allegedly entrusted with a specific task: to bring in money and circulate it for the benefit of Hamas, among activists and prisoners affiliated with the movement. "I received the list of Hamas activists (...) from my uncle Muhammad, who had called me in December 2012 and told me that there was an amount of 200,000 shekels (about 40,000 euros at the time, ed.) that would come to me and I would have to distribute it to Hamas-affiliated activists and prisoners detained in Israel at that time. He (Hannoun, ed) said 'I will give you the names and phone numbers of their parents' and I agreed'.

Awad does not stop there, adding further details of his uncle's alleged relations with Hamas. Indeed, he points to a specific name: 'My uncle gave me the number of Rateb Zaidan, about fifty years old, known as Abu Abdullah (...) a Hamas man'. He adds that the man is 'involved in the financial activities of Hamas'. From that contact, he claims, came other connections: Abu Shahed and Abu Ahmad. The objective: to financially support the families 'of the martyrs' of the movement through an association, the Al Nour, which for the Israelis is linked to Hamas.