(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Arizona, continues to fight for victims of terrorist acts.
In a Sept. 18 letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Hamadeh sought to follow up on a Feb. 26 request regarding “remission petitions for forfeited assets from collaborators with ISIS” to be remitted to American victims of ISIS.
“As the prior letter recounted, the Department of Justice, under the previous administration, prosecuted French company Lafarge S.A. and its subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria S.A. for conspiring to provide material support for ISIS,” wrote Hamadeh. “In 2022, Lafarge pled guilty in U.S. federal court, resulting in $687 million in forfeiture and $90 million in penalties – funds paid to the U.S. government.”
According to Hamadeh, “many qualifying victims and their survivors” have yet to receive forfeiture funds from the federal government. Legal counsel for these same victims and survivors has also received no response from the government.
“For the sake of justice for those who continue to suffer the consequences of ISIS’s crimes and the actions of its collaborators, I respectfully reiterate the need for a clear accounting of the status of these funds and why victims’ families have received nothing,” wrote Hamadeh, a former Maricopa County prosecutor. “This is one more failure of the Biden administration that should be addressed.”
In an email to The Center Square, Hamadeh said justice delayed is justice denied.
“The victims of ISIS, which engaged in a heinous and unforgivable campaign of violence during the Syrian civil war with the money from Lafarge, have been waiting for justice,” Hamadeh said. “They have been waiting for answers. They deserve both.”
Hamadeh went on to say that not only have the innocent civilians and American service members been victimized by ISIS and LaFarge, “the Biden administration added to their pain” by failing to provide a clear accounting of the funds and explain why the victims have received nothing.
“That is inexcusable,” Hamadeh told The Center Square.
