Barbara Ferguson, Arab News Correspondent

WASHINGTON, 1 November 2003 — Abdulrahman Alamoudi, the US Muslim American leader indicted last week for allegedly engaging in illegal financial transactions with Libya, pleaded “not guilty” Thursday to charges that he attempted to smuggle cash into the United States to fund “one or more” terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda.

Stanley Cohen, Alamoudi’s attorney, entered the plea for his client who is being detained without bail.

US District Judge Claude Hilton, who set Alamoudi’s trial date for Feb. 16, said: “There is a risk and danger of flight,” adding his wealth, frequent overseas travel and his Middle East connections were all reasons why he should be held without bail.

Alamoudi’s attorney dismissed the charges. He told reporters at a federal court in Virginia Thursday there was “simply no evidence” that his client was involved in terrorism, only possible violations of US regulatory requirements.

Alamoudi, 51, was charged last week in an 18-count indictment of engaging in illegal financial transactions with Libya, money laundering, misuse of a passport, failure to report foreign bank accounts and lying in an application to become a naturalized citizen.

Alamoudi is charged with attempting to smuggle $340,000 into the United States. Brett Gentrup, an agent at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, said the cash “was intended for delivery in Damascus, Syria, to one of more of the terrorists or terrorist organizations active in Syria.”

The affidavit charges that Alamoudi was “engaged in financial transactions” with Libya, as “one of the seven state sponsors of terrorism.”

ICE and FBI agents at Washington Dulles Airport arrested the Muslim activist on Sept. 28, shortly after he had returned on a flight from London.

According to the affidavit, Alamoudi told the British customs officials — who found the $340,000 in one of his bags before he boarded a flight to Damascus — that he hoped to use the money for the American Muslim Foundation and intended to deposit the cash in banks in Saudi Arabia “from which he would feed it backing smaller sums into accounts in the United States.”

But prosecutors do not believe the money was intended for the foundation, and say the Libyan government has used ‘couriers’ to deliver cash to terrorist organizations.

The indictment alleged that from November 1995 until his arrest in September 2003, Alamoudi “devised a scheme to obtain money from Libya and other sources overseas for transmission into the United States.”