He is identified as a terrorist by American authorities and is accused, among other things, of financing the Houthi rebels and Hezbollah. Despite the US imposing sanctions on him, he lives a good life in Malmö. He claims to be innocent of the accusations.
In addition to financing terrorist groups, 50-year-old Abdul Jalil Mallah is also alleged to have been involved in large-scale oil smuggling. The US government alleges that he has assisted Iran by shipping oil to the former dictator Bashar al-Assad’s Syria.
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According to Sydsvenskan, the smuggling has generated profits of hundreds of millions of kronor, which have been used to finance terror groups supported by Iran in the Middle East, such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In addition to being designated as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the USA, he has also been sentenced to 18 months in prison in the UK for commercial disputes but is currently at large in Sweden.
Being designated as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the USA entails a long list of severe limitations in life, including in banking. Despite this, Abdul Jalil Mallah has been able to live openly and without problems in Malmö, where he owned a grocery store and built a residential area on the plains of Skåne.
“Bring a Bible and a Quran here”
The USA also accuses Abdul Jalil Mallah of making transfers of tens of millions of kronor to the Yemeni exchange office Swaid and Sons, which is linked to the Houthi rebels.
While he denies the accusations, the USA tightened sanctions against Abdul Jalil Mallah as recently as last year. Targeted sanctions were also imposed on the family’s Turkish shipping company and four of their ships. Saudi Arabia and Israel have also placed Abdul Jalil Mallah or vessels linked to him on sanction lists.
“Bring a Bible and a Quran here, and I will swear on both that I have never done what they claim,” says Abdul Jalil Mallah as he tries to get the journalists investigating him to believe in his innocence.