IN what can be described as a historic move, the government has ordered that the assets of former Member of Parliament (MP), Adul Kadir, and his accomplice Abdel Nur be frozen years after they were found guilty of terrorist-related charges.
Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma, acting on behalf of the substantive Finance Minister Winston Jordan, on August 29, 2017, issued a Targeted Financial Sanctions Order against Kadir and Nur in keeping with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act.
The minister, in issuing the order, explained that the sanctions are also in keeping with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 referred to in section 2(2)(1)(A) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act.
The UN Security Resolution calls for the freezing of funds and other financial assets or economic resources without delay belonging to persons who commit or attempt to commit terrorist acts or participate in or facilitate the commission of terrorist acts, of entities owned or controlled directly or indirectly by such persons.
In December 2010, Kadir, who is also known as Aubrey Michael Seaforth, was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to blow up fuel tanks at the John F. Kennedy International Airport back in 2007. He was sentenced to life at a time when he continuously pleaded his innocence.

“At no time did I have any intention or believe in bringing any harm to the people of this country by the terrorist acts I happened to be identified with,” Kadir told a judge in federal court in Brooklyn.
But the U.S. District Court Judge Dora Irizarry, in response, told Kadir that there was ample evidence to suggest that he was a key player in “a plan that would have caused devastation unimaginable.”
Kadir and Russell Defreitas, a former JFK cargo handler, were arrested and charged with multiple counts of conspiracy in 2007 after an informant infiltrated the plot and recorded them discussing it.
Meanwhile, the United States Government had contended that Kadir and Nur were associated with the Trinidad-based Jamaat al Muslimeen, a militant Muslim group. Kadir was arrested in Trinidad and Tobago and was extradited to the U.S. On August 2, 2010, Kadir – along with Russell Defreitas – was convicted in a jury trial for the JFK airport bomb plot. According to U.S. court documents, Kadir was the disciple of Mohsen Rabbani, an Iranian diplomat accused of being one of the masterminds behind the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.
Nur had pleaded guilty before the trial and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.