Who is Hannoun, proPal leader arrested is on US blacklist

"It is a hoax that I am a Hamas leader. I am simply a Palestinian who has been fighting for decades for the rights of his people. Hamas had more than 70 per cent of the votes in Gaza and the West Bank, so it is a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. And I am as sympathetic to Hamas as I am to any faction fighting for my rights'. This is how Mohamed Hannoun, president of the Palestinian Association in Italy, arrested on charges of being a financier of Hamas, commented last August on recurring accusations of being part of the terrorist organisation. Hannoun, 63, lives in Genoa and is an architect by profession. He has Jordanian citizenship but has been in Italy for 40 years. In 1994, he founded the Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People (A.b.s.p.), now accused of being a tool to raise funds for Hamas.

In 2023, the US Treasury Department placed Hannoun and his A.b.s.p. on a black list as terrorist financiers. The Palestinian activist has always rejected the accusation. On 15 November 2024, the Questura di Milano issued him with a a travel warrant for incitement to hatred and violence: at a rally, Hannoun had praised the young people who had attacked Israeli Maccabi fans in Amsterdam for insulting Arabs. After 7 October, he took part in countless demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Gaza, and was very active in support of the Sumud Flotilla, which set off partly from Genoa and tried to force the Israeli blockade. Its participation in events was often disputed, due to suspicions of complicity with Hamas. In October this year, Hannoun received another one-year travel warrant from Milan, for having justified Hamas's killings of alleged collaborators: 'After the truce,' he had said, 'the Palestinian resistance, which paid with blood, has done justice, as in all revolutions in the world'.

Hannoun, was about to go definitively to Turkey, to transfer his financing activities to the terrorist organisation there. Therefore, according to the gip Silvia Carpanini, who signed the pre-trial detention order, there was a 'concrete and very real danger of flight'. From the wiretaps, it emerged that the plan to move was now being implemented. Moreover, according to the gip of the Genoa Court, there was also the danger of evidential pollution: according to the investigators' findings, Hannoun and the other suspects had 'repeatedly wiped', reads the order, their electronic devices.

Meanwhile, a government briefing on the Mohammad Hannoun case will be held on Wednesday 14 January at 5.30 p.m. in the Chamber. This was decided by the conference of group leaders in Montecitorio.