The lawyer of a 35-year-old man accused of terrorism financing is adamant that his client made an innocent donation to charity.

Ziyadh Hoorzook appeared in the Lichtenburg Magistrate’s Court in the North West on Tuesday, where Magistrate Joshua Lebombo handed down the bail judgment.

He was released on R30 000 bail and faces charges under the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act.

He was arrested at his Johannesburg home on Friday, January 3, by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks.

The investigation into Hoorzook began in May 2018 when the Financial Intelligence Centre and the Hawks were alerted to suspicious transactions potentially linked to terrorism financing.

He is accused of donating R11 500 through the South African cryptocurrency exchange Luno to al-Sadaqah – an alleged terrorist fundraising entity posing as a charity – on November 30, 2017.

Speaking to The Witness, attorney Yousha Tayob said Hoorzook answered a call for charity and made an innocent donation. He added that he hoped the charges would be dropped.

“In essence, there was a call for charity. He was provided with an e-wallet address in 2017, made the payment into the e-wallet address, and then, arbitrarily, the United States in 2020 declared this e-wallet to be a terrorism-related account, and he’s now charged for it.

“We know that the advertisement on which the state relies to prosecute him only came out in March 2018 and possibly even June 2019.

“At the earliest, al-Sadaqah only appeared on social media in March 2018, and that advert had a date in June 2019. So, the state is relying on an annexure for the transaction in 2017 that did not exist,” Tayob said.

The matter has been adjourned to March 3 for further investigation.

Tayob said the prosecutor had stated in court that the investigations were finalised, ‘so for the matter to be adjourned for further investigations is a contradiction to the state’s statement’.

Additional reporting by Faizel Patel.