Israeli authorities conducted a raid on a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office, following the government’s decision to shut down the Qatari-owned TV station’s local operations on Sunday, according to an Israeli official and a source from Al Jazeera.
Video footage circulated online showed plainclothes officers dismantling camera equipment in a hotel room, reportedly located in East Jerusalem, as stated by the Al Jazeera source.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet ordered the shutdown of the network for the duration of the Gaza conflict, citing concerns over national security.
Al Jazeera said the move was a “criminal action” and the accusation that the network threatened Israeli security was a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that put its journalists at risk.
It reserved the right to “pursue every legal step”.
Throughout the war, the network has reported on and criticized Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
“The incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel,” Netanyahu posted on social media following a unanimous cabinet vote.
According to a government statement, Israel’s communications minister has signed orders for immediate action. However, at least one lawmaker supporting the closure noted that Al Jazeera could potentially challenge the decision in court.
The statement outlined measures including the closure of Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel, seizure of broadcast equipment, discontinuation of the channel’s transmission through cable and satellite providers, and blocking access to its websites. There was no mention of Al Jazeera’s operations in Gaza.
Israeli satellite and cable television providers suspended Al Jazeera broadcasts following the government decision.
The Qatari government did not provide an official comment, instead deferring to Al Jazeera. Last month, the network accused Israel of a “series of systematic attacks” aimed at silencing Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera claimed that Israel deliberately targeted and killed several of its journalists, including Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza AlDahdooh, both of whom died in Gaza during the conflict. Israel has denied targeting journalists.
Established in 1996, Al Jazeera is viewed by Qatar as a means to enhance its global profile.
Netanyahu promised to increase Israel’s conflict with Al Jazeera. This may also make tensions with Qatar, which owns the channel, worse. This comes at a time when Qatar is trying to help stop the fighting in Gaza. Neither Qatar nor the broadcaster said anything right away.
Israel and Al Jazeera have not gotten along for a while. Israel says Al Jazeera is not fair to them. Relationships between two parties became very bad almost two years ago when a journalist from Al Jazeera, Shireen Abu Akleh, was killed during a military operation by Israel in the West Bank.
The journalist was famous in the Arab world for talking about Israel, and the channel said Israel purposely killed her. Israel said they didn’t do it and that the Palestinian woman was probably accidentally shot by Israeli soldiers.
The relations got even worse after Israel started a war against Hamas in October. In 2007, a militant group attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others.
In December, an Israeli attack killed a cameraman from Al Jazeera while he was covering the war in southern Gaza. The leader of the news team in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, got hurt in the attack too.
The network said Israel is responsible for killing Dahdouh’s son in an attack in January. Hamza Dahdouh was working for Al Jazeera when a car he was in got hit by a strike. The army said that Hamza Dahdouh was in Islamic Jihad, a militant group in October. 7 attacks by Hamas.
Last October, Wael Dahdouh lost his wife, daughter, another son, and his grandson in an Israeli attack. The TV showed Dahdouh going into the hospital and looking very sad as he looked at his dead son. Israel has not told us who they were aiming to hit with that attack.
Al Jazeera is one of the few news outlets from other countries that stayed in Gaza during the war. They showed videos of airstrikes, crowded hospitals, and said that Israel was killing a lot of people. Israel says that Al Jazeera is working with Hamas.
Al Jazeera caused damage to Israel’s security and was involved in the October incident. 7 attacks where a lot of people were killed and angry fighting started against Israeli soldiers. “It’s time to get rid of Hamas in our country,” Netanyahu said on X, which used to be called Twitter.
He said he was going to start following the new law right away. “He said Al Jazeera won’t show news from Israel anymore. ”
Al Jazeera cannot be watched in some countries in the Middle East because their governments have stopped it.
Egypt stopped Al Jazeera from operating in their country in 2013. It started taking strong action after the military took control in 2013 and removed a government led by the Muslim Brotherhood group. Egypt thinks the Brotherhood is a bad group and said Qatar and Al Jazeera help them.
In Washington, a person from the State Department called Matthew Miller said the US may not always like what Al Jazeera reports, but still thinks their work is important.
“We help the independent news organizations all over the world,” he said. “We know about what’s happening in Gaza because there are reporters there, including ones from Al Jazeera, telling us what’s going on. ”
Israel has said it might close Al Jazeera before, but it hasn’t actually done it. Monday’s law did not close the station right away, but it allows officials to do it later after getting permission from legal and security officials. Any order will only be valid until July 31 or the end of the war in Gaza.
Israel’s Minister of Communications, Shlomo Karhi, said he plans to go ahead with the closure. He said Al Jazeera has been working as a tool for spreading biased information for Hamas, by promoting using weapons against Israel.
“He said it’s impossible for a media outlet, which has press credentials from the Government Press Office and offices in Israel, to act against us from within, especially during wartime. ”
His office announced that they want to stop the channel from being shown in Israel and stop it from working in the country. The rule will not affect the West Bank or Gaza.
Walid Al-Omari, who is in charge of the Al Jazeera office in the area, said on Monday night that they have not received any communication from the Israeli authorities. “But it’s obvious that they will make the decision in a few days,” he told The Associated Press.
However, penalizing the channel might be dangerous. Qatar has been helping to make peace between Israel and Hamas. It helped arrange and support a week-long break from fighting in November, and has been holding discussions on and off for weeks to try to arrange another break from fighting.
Israel may be trying to push Qatar to make Hamas agree to something by focusing on Al Jazeera. In the past, Netanyahu said Qatar is not doing enough. However, this could also make Qatar unhappy. Qatar is a rich country in the Gulf with a lot of oil and gas. It is one of the only countries that has power over Hamas.
During the war, press freedom groups have criticized Israel a lot. The Committee to Protect Journalists says that 90 Palestinian journalists and two Israeli journalists have died in the war. Israel has not allowed foreign journalists to go to Gaza on their own to report on the war. The army let a few journalists go into Gaza for short visits with strict control and protection from the military.
people with disabilities to live in dignity and equality. ” Shechter believes the law is unfair and does not treat people with disabilities fairly.
The oldest son of the person in charge of Al Jazeera‘s office in Gaza was killed in a bomb attack by Israel in the south of Gaza.
Hamza al-Dahdouh, a journalist and cameraman for Al Jazeera, was on a road with other reporters when a drone attacked them between Khan Younis and Rafah.
Freelance journalist Mustafa Thuraya was also murdered.
In October, four more of bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh’s family members were also killed.
His wife Amna, his grandchild Adam, his 15-year-old son Mahmoud and seven-year-old daughter Sham were all killed in an attack by Israel.
According to Hisham Zaqout, a reporter for Al Jazeera, Hamza and a group of journalists were on their way to the Moraj area northeast of Rafah. The area had been declared a “humanitarian zone” by the Israeli army, but had recently been bombed.
Many people from Gaza ran away to this place to get away from the bombing in other parts of the area. Hamza planned to tell about what was happening and what happened after the bombings in the area, according to Al Jazeera.
Live video from Al Jazeera showed what happened after the car they were in got hit.
His father, Wael al-Dahdouh, was crying and holding his hand while standing next to his body in a morgue in Khan Younis. He was laid to rest in the southern city of Rafah.
Hamza was more than just a part of me. He meant everything to me. He was my everything. These tears are from feeling sad and missing someone or something. “These are the tears of people,” his father said during the funeral.
“I want the world to pay attention to what’s happening in Gaza. ”
Wael al-Dahdouh got hurt and his cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was killed in a different attack while they were filming last month.
Mral-Dahdouh, who has eight kids, kept talking about the fighting in Gaza.
Hamza al-Dahdouh had a lot of people who liked his Instagram posts- one million. He wrote about his dad in his last post before he died. “You are strong and calm. ” Don’t give up hope in God’s kindness. “He said you will definitely get a reward,” he told me.
Over 75 reporters have died since the fighting in Gaza began.
More than 22,000 people have died in Gaza, according to the health ministry run by Hamas.
Two Palestinian reporters have been killed when Israel bombed their car in Gaza on Sunday. This brings the total number of people killed since October 7 to 109.
Hamza Wael Al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya were killed in a strike in the city of Khan Younis. Hamza’s father is the chief of Al Jazeera in the area.
This news is still developing. There will be more updates soon. Come back soon to get more information.
Broadcast Journalist Bridget Otoo has raised a question about the government’s alleged plan to sue Al Jazeera over a ‘defamatory’ gold mafia exposé in a tweet,
Her tweet came as a response to Kow Essuman’s claim that he was blocked by a Twitter user. The tweet suggests that Bridget Otoo is seeking clarification on the government’s position regarding the exposé by Al Jazeera and the potential legal action against the media outlet.
On July 31, 2023, Kow Essuman, President Akufo-Addo’s legal counsel, used Twitter to criticize a user with the handle @receiptsguy. Mr. Essuman pointed out the irony in @receiptsguy’s actions of blocking him while at the same time requesting others to tag him (Essuman) in their tweets.
“So @receiptsguy has blocked me on Twitter/X and yet posts my content and asks people to tag me. Coward! Be courageous and unblock me, and then tag me yourself in your posts,” Essuman tweeted.
In response to Kow Essuman’s tweet about @receiptsguy, Bridget Otoo joined the conversation by mentioning that Essuman was actually the first one to block @receiptsguy. However, her main interest in the matter was not about the Twitter block but rather seeking an update on the issue with Al Jazeera and the government’s potential lawsuit over the ‘defamatory’ gold mafia exposé.
“You blocked him first. But that’s not the most important issue here. Lawyer, Aljazeera suit, how far?” Bridget Otoo’s tweet read.
You blocked him first. But that’s not the most important issue here. Lawyer , Aljazeera suit, how far? https://t.co/gt0sLv6Oz2
Akufo-Addo demands retraction, apology from Al Jazeera over defamatory gold mafia exposé
On April 25, 2023, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo demanded an immediate retraction and apology from Al Jazeera Media Network over one of its recent documentaries that named him as having been involved, in a way or another, in some illegal activities.
The documentary, Gold Mafia, which was serialised in four different episodes, had one of the main characters in it, Alistair Mathias, mention in one of them that the president of Ghana was his lawyer.
Alistair had also claimed that he had very close relations with the president, plus other African Heads of State, a claim the presidency has denied.
“The documentary in question made baseless claims that the President acted as lawyer for one Mr. Alistair Mathias and implied that the President personally benefitted unlawfully from an alleged $100m state infrastructure contract purportedly awarded to Mr. Mathias.
“In his letter dated 11th April, 2023, responding to AL Jazeera’s letter of 2nd April, 2023, which was received on 6th April, 2023, containing these vague and defamatory allegations, the Legal Counsel to the President, Mr. Kow Abaka Essuman, acting on the instructions of the President, informed Al Jazeera that the President had not been in private practice since the year 2000 and that the President had no recollection of acting as a lawyer, either personally or through his law firm, Messrs. Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co, for a Mr. Alistair Mathias or his company, Guldrest Resources,” the statement said.
We don’t owe Akufo-Addo an apology – Al Jazeera suggests
In a response shared on the May 4 edition of the New Day programme, TV3 published an email response from Al Jazeera which suggested that the channel had taken care of all concerns raised by Akufo-Addo before the said documentary aired.
“We have responded to the letter from the president of the Republic of Ghana, correcting some parts of its content and clarifying various points.
“Prior to the publication of Gold Mafia, we wrote to the president outlining the claims made by Alistair Mathias. The president’s response appears near the end of the documentary,” their response noted.
A documentary by Al Jazeera that revealed massive financial fraud involving gold and money laundering across several African countries has prompted the South African government to launch a criminal investigation.
The four-part documentary, called‘Gold Mafia’, featured interviews with rogue businessmen who admitted to running a lucrative gold smuggling and money laundering operation that exploited the loopholes in the banking system.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said in Parliament that the government was taking the allegations very seriously and that it was determined to protect the integrity of its financial system for the benefit of the economy and the citizens.
He said that an inquiry had been registered to investigate the syndicate and the individuals who were allegedly involved in the criminal activities, as shown in the documentary.
President @CyrilRamaphosa announces an inquiry into our Gold Mafia investigation in South Africa’s parliament. He says authorities will ‘thoroughly investigate’ individuals exposed as ‘criminally implicated’. #GoldMafiapic.twitter.com/9Ow74fnDVr
— Al Jazeera Investigations (@AJIunit) May 12, 2023
He added that no arrests had been made yet and that he could not disclose more details as the financial action taskforce was working on the case.
The documentary also mentioned Ghana, where one of the self-confessed money launderers, Alistair Mathias, claimed to be friends with president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who had once been his lawyer.
However, Akufo-Addo denied knowing Mathias and his lawyer also refuted that he had ever represented Mathias or his company. Mathias later retracted his claim and said he did not know Akufo-Addo.
The Ghanaian government demanded an apology and a retraction from Al Jazeera for some parts of their reportage, but the Qatar-based channel refused to do so, saying that it had done its due diligence and presented both sides of the story.
Private legal practitioner, Samson Lardy Anyenini, Jubilee House’s sole alternative now is to sue Al Jazeera for failing to withdraw and apologize for statements against President Akufo-Addo in its Gold Mafia documentary.
The presidency had issued a seven-day ultimatum to Al Jazeera to retract and apologise for alleged misrepresentation of the President in the documentary which exposes corruption, gold smuggling and money laundering on the continent of Africa.
Al Jazeera has responded it is unable to grant the wishes of the presidency, because it has done no wrong.
Speaking on Top Story on Joy FM, Samson Lardy Anyenini explained that because the president did not question the ethics of Al Jazeera but rather called them out for intending to malign the President’s name, a commission will not be the forum to go to.
Mr Anyenini said that the court becomes the place to prove the media house intended to slander the president “once you couch the complaint in the manner of defamation. In this case, they actually say it’s malicious defamation, which means there was clear intent and malice, to do what they did. They knew it was wrong and untrue but proceeded to publish.”
Mr Anyenini added that “Now the judicial authorities are very clear that when it comes to the online or the cyberspace, the law is that where the publication takes place and for the purposes of a defamation claim, where the relevant words are heard or read, so it doesn’t matter if you’re in Ghana or not once your publication was read in Ghana, a party that is affected has a right at law to take you on.”
A letter signed by Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante on April 25, stated; “I am instructed by the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to demand formally that Al Jazeera Media Network (Al Jazeera”) retract immediately and apologise for airing an inaccurate and unfair documentary that contained spurious and unsubstantiated allegations against the President and the Government of Ghana.”
However, Al Jazeera, in its reply on Thursday, May 4 to JoyNews’ Kwaku Asante’s email requesting a response to the demands by the presidency, said it does not owe the president nor his office any apology since it did not allege the issues raised in the letter from Jubilee House demanding the retraction and apology.
Meanwhile, Mr Anyenini noted that although there is a law in Ghana hindering people from suing the President while he is in power, there may not be any that stops him from taking the legal route, especially in this defamation case.
“The President can take up the suit in any part of the world but more conveniently in Ghana and when he wins, the question remains how do you enforce the judgment? We have a way of enforcing a foreign judgement, as long as there is what we call the reciprocity kind of agreement,” Mr Anyenini said.
He explained that “You are allowed to register that judgment and enforce it. I suppose that where Al Jazeera is physically located, it will be the case that the same rules will be invoked and applicable to enforce a judgment against them.”
Background: How Ghana appeared in Al Jazeera’s ‘Gold Mafia’ documentary
Early on in April, Ghana popped up in a damning investigative documentary conducted into some of Zimbabwe’s gold smuggling and money laundering syndicates.
In the concluding episode, undercover journalists posing as Chinese gangsters interact with one of the key players, Alistair Mathias to help clean a supposed dirty money.
‘Gold Mafia’: We have responded to Akufo-Addo’s letter – Al Jazeera
Mr Alistair who is described in the piece as a Financial Architect told the reporters posing as criminals that he had a track record of successfully orchestrating such syndicates.
Essentially, he is said to be instrumental in designing money laundering schemes for many corrupt politicians in Africa.
Alistair named Ghana as one of the countries where he had executed similar schemes, alleging associations also with the President.
Mr Mathias added that he used to be the biggest smuggler in Ghana at one point, raking out about $40 million to $60 million worth of gold a month from the West African country.
During the documentary, Alistair outlined his modus operandi to the undercover journalists suggesting that the most important credential of his operations in Africa comes from the trust that some dubious politicians have in him to keep their siphoned resources safely tucked away.
He revealed that in doing this, the politicians involved do not keep assets in their own names, but rely on proxies.
Citing government infrastructure as an example, he indicated that he is able to take huge contracts on behalf of Ghanaian politicians, inflate the cost and subsequently split the profit afterwards.
“In Ghana, I take tenders, road construction, procurement, supplying different things, oil, this that. There, all the politicians get taken care of, indirectly because it allows me to do all my other stuff freely.” ‘Gold Mafia’: We have responded to Akufo-Addo’s letter – Al Jazeera
He explains further in the documentary;
“For example, Ghana government, Mathias Holdings, I get the contract. I subcontract it to you, $100 million contract. Ghana government pays me $100 million. I give it to you and you say it’s $80 million” he told the investigative reporters who secretly recorded the interaction.
In this scenario, the outstanding $20 million out of the inflated $100 million is shared per an arrangement reached between Alistair and the said politician. ‘Gold Mafia’: We have responded to Akufo-Addo’s letter – Al Jazeera
“I’ll have an arrangement with them and they get 15… I’ll probably get 5 million,” he added.
“I keep all of it in Dubai. Whenever they want it, they just tell me and I send it.”
International news network Al Jazeera, may not apologise to President Akufo-Addo, over its documentary involving the country’s gold mining industry, despite a request from the Jubilee House to do so.
The office of the president issued a request last week demanding a retraction and apology from the media outlet following damning revelations by Alistair Mathias that portrayed the President in a negative light over allegations of gold smuggling.
Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, who issued the request on behalf of the President, wrote “I have been instructed by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to formally demand that Al Jazeera Media Network (“Al Jazeera”) immediately retract and apologise for broadcasting an inaccurate and unfair documentary containing spurious and unsubstantiated allegations against the President and the Government of Ghana.”
The documentary, titled “The Gold Mafia,” included interviews with several individuals who claimed that they were involved in money laundering schemes for African leaders.
Mathias, one of the individuals interviewed in the documentary, boasted of having a close relationship with President Akufo-Addo and several other African leaders.
President Akufo-Addo, however denied acting as a lawyer for Alistair Mathias or his company.
Al Jazeera also claims to have written to the President before airing the documentary in its email, and the President’s alleged response to them was thereafter included towards the end of the documentary, together with a clarification of Mathias’ claims.
Al Jazeera has yet to issue a statement indicating admission of guilt or remorse, and it seems unlikely that the network will retract its documentary or apologise to the President.
Alistair Mathias’ claims about Ghana
In the fourth episode of Al Jazeera’s documentary, “The Gold Mafia,” Alistair Mathias claimed that there is no head of state or president in Africa that he and his team cannot get to.
Mathias cited Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, as one of his ‘good friends’ and alleged that the president had been his lawyer in the past
However, Al Jazeera noted towards the end of the documentary that Mathias denied ever being awarded any tender by the Ghanaian government or entering into any government contracts in any African country.
Mathias also denied designing mechanisms to launder money or trading illegal gold for Russian clients or anyone else when asked for a formal comment about Al Jazeera’s findings. He also denied having any working relationship with Macmillan.
Gold mining in Ghana
Ghana is Africa’s leading producer of gold, accounting for 4% of government revenue in 2017, according to Transparency International.
However, the management of the country’s gold resources has been marred by controversy and corruption, as evidenced by two recent cases:
The Agyapa deal, a proposal to sell almost 76% of Ghana’s future gold royalties to a company based in Jersey, a tax haven and secrecy jurisdiction.
The deal was approved by parliament in 2020 but faced strong opposition from civil society groups, who argued that it was opaque, undervalued, and detrimental to Ghana’s sovereignty and development.
The deal also sparked a political scandal, as the Special Prosecutor who was investigating it resigned in November 2020, citing interference and threats from the government. The deal was eventually suspended in January 2021, pending a review.
The second major challenge facing Ghana’s gold sector is the illegal mining or “galamsey” phenomenon.
This involves mostly Chinese miners operating without licences and using heavy machinery that damage the environment and displace local communities.
The illegal mining has been facilitated by corruption among Ghanaian state officials, who have either colluded with the Chinese miners or failed to enforce the laws and regulations.
Several attempts to crack down on illegal mining have been ineffective or counterproductive, as some task forces have also engaged in rent-seeking or violent behaviour.
These cases show that Ghana’s gold resource is not only a source of wealth, but also a source of conflict and corruption.
They also highlight the need for more transparency, accountability, and participation in the governance of the country’s natural resources.
Jubilee House is requesting a sincere apology from the international media outlet, Al Jazeera, for dragging President Akufo-Addo’s name in the mud in its latest documentary, Gold Mafia.
Al Jazeera has seven days within which to oblige the seat of government, according to a notice issued by Jubilee House on April 25, 2023.
A letter signed by Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante stated that; “I am instructed by the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to demand formally that Al Jazeera Media Network (Al Jazeera”) retract immediately and apologise for airing an inaccurate and unfair documentary that contained spurious and unsubstantiated allegations against the President and the Government of Ghana.”
Earlier this month, Ghana popped up in a damning investigative documentary conducted into some of Zimbabwe’s gold smuggling and money laundering syndicates.
In the concluding episode, undercover journalists posing as Chinese gangsters interact with one of the key parties, Alistair Mathias to help clean their dirty money.
Mr Alistair who is described in the piece as a Financial Architect told the reporters posing as criminals that he had a track record of successfully orchestrating such syndicates.
Essentially, he is said to be instrumental in designing money laundering schemes for many corrupt politicians in Africa.
Alistair named Ghana as one of the countries where he had executed similar schemes adding that he is good friends with its Presidentwho he also claims used to be his lawyer.
“Ghana’s President is a good friend of mine, in fact, he was my lawyer,” he told the undercover reporters.
Mr Mathias added that he used to be the biggest smuggler in Ghana at one point, raking out about $40 million to $60 million worth of gold a month from the West African country.
But the Presidency says some “parts of the documentary are malicious, defamatory, and a calculated attempt to tarnish the reputation of the President and Government of Ghana.”
During the documentary, Alistair outlined his modus operandi to the undercover journalists suggesting that the most important credential of his operations in Africa comes from the trust that some dubious politicians have in him to keep their siphoned resources safely tucked away.
He revealed that in doing this, the politicians involved do not keep assets in their own names, but rely on proxies.
Citing government infrastructure as an example, he indicated that he is able to take huge contracts on behalf of Ghanaian politicians, inflate the cost and subsequently split the profit afterwards.
“In Ghana, I take tenders, road construction, procurement, supplying different things, oil, this that. There, all the politicians get taken care of, indirectly because it allows me to do all my other stuff freely.
He explains further in the documentary;
“For example, Ghana government, Mathias Holdings, I get the contract. I subcontract it to you, $100 million contract. Ghana government pays me $100 million. I give it to you and you say it’s $80 million” he told the investigative reporters who secretly recorded the interaction.
In this scenario, the outstanding $20 million out of the inflated $100 million is shared per an arrangement reached between Alistair and the said politician.
“I’ll have an arrangement with them and they get 15… I’ll probably get 5 million,” he added.
“I keep all of it in Dubai. Whenever they want it, they just tell me and I send it.”
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo responded to Aljazeera on these claims saying had no recollection of acting as a lawyer for Alistair Mathias or his company.
Mr Mathias has also denied ever being awarded any tender by the Ghanaian government or entering into any government contracts in any African country.
A gold merchant uncovered in Al Jazeera’s investigative documentary, Gold Mafia, has claimed that President Akufo-Addo is his friend as well as lawyer.
Al Jazeera’s latest investigation, Gold Mafia, has uncovered a band of criminals driving gold smuggling and money laundering worth billions of dollars in Southern Africa.
However, those involved in this gold smuggling syndicate have business networks that stretch across the continent and operate in many other countries including Ghana.
Alistair Mathias, described by the investigative reporters as a financial architect who builds money laundering schemes for corrupt politicians, was approached by undercover journalists posing as Chinese criminals to help them launder money from China.
Speaking to the undercover reporters while trying to strike a deal, he alleged that Ghana’s president Akufo-Addo, is his friend and was his lawyer too.
Alistair had earlier revealed that he has been smuggling $40 million worth of gold from Ghana monthly, which is $480 million worth of gold annually.
“Ghana’s president is a good friend of mine. In fact, he was my lawyer,” Mathias was recorded saying.
The undercover reporters found one of the companies he had used in Ghana registered as Guldrest Resources, a gold exporter which is documented in the FinCEN Files.
During the FinCEN Files investigations in 2020, the offices of Guldrest Resources could not be traced, even though the company is registered in Ghana and is a member of the Chamber of Bullion Traders Ghana.
Mathias further stated that he knew the presidents of Zambia and the DRC. Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, he said, is his friend, and added that the Zimbabwean president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is his partner.
“But I can’t say that publicly because he is under sanctions,” he said.
Telling undercover reporters how politicians everywhere including in Africa hide their money, he said they don’t keep assets in their own names; they use proxies – “Someone they can trust.”
He further told the reporters; “In Ghana I take tenders, road construction, procurement, supplying different things, oil, this that.”
He said by doing all that, the politicians are taken care of, and he could do all his things freely.
Later when confronted by Al Jazeera journalists about his claims, Mathias denied ever having any relationship with African politicians, or engaging in money laundering. He also denied ever being offered any tender by the Ghanaian government or doing any contracts for the government.
President Akufo-Addo has also told Al Jazeera that he has no recollection of acting as a lawyer for Mathias or his company.
President Akufo-Addo has been speaking to Al Jazeera news network about his supposed relationship with ‘notorious Gold smuggler’ Alistair Mathias who was fingered in a recent expose smuggling Gold worth $40 million out of Ghana each year.
Doha-based international news channel, Al Jazeera have revealed that president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo responded to their request for information in respect of an allegation made against him by a notorious gold smuggler.
The self-acclaimed smuggler Canadian Alistair Mathias is on record as saying Akufo-Addo was his friend and lawyer whiles speaking to undercover agents in a four-part documentary on Zimbabwe known as ‘Gold Mafia.’
At the tail end of the fourth episode of Gold Mafia titled ‘Have the King With You,’ a number of the accused persons including Alistair denied all the things they had said on tape and which had been recorded by undercover agents.
The part specific to Ghana read: “Mr Mathias denied ever being awarded any tender by the Ghanaian government or entering any government contracts in any African country.
“President Akufo-Addo of Ghana told us that he had no recollection of acting as a lawyer for Alistair Mathias or his company,” a text-on-screen by Al Jazeera read.
‘Akufo-Addo has not been in private practice since 2000’ – Lawyer dispels links to notorious gold smuggler
Kow Essuman, lawyer to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has revealed that the president hasn’t been in private practice in the past 23 years.
Essuman was responding to allegations by Alistair Mathias, a Canadian gold smuggler, that the president is his friend and lawyer.
In a tweet shared on Sunday, April 16, 2023, Kow Essuman affirmed that the president’s law firm has also not in any way represented Alistair Mathias as he claimed in the Al Jazeera investigative film.
“The President has not been in private practice since 2000, neither has the President nor his law firm, Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co, acted as a lawyer for this Alistair Mathias or Guldrest.
“The President does not know this Mathias or Guldrest. Ignore the spurious allegations,” the tweet he shared read.
What Alistair Mathias said about Akufo-Addo:
Alistair Mathias, who smuggles $40 million worth of gold from Ghana every month, disclosed the kind of close relationship he has with Ghana’s president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Alistair Mathias, who is a gold trader with expertise in designing money laundering schemes for Africans, said that his work has given him access to every president or head of state on the continent.
Speaking in the final episode of the undercover investigations of gold smuggling in Africa by the Investigative Unit of Al Jazeera, Alistair Mathis, who is one of the main characters in the video, boasted about his relationship with the Ghanaian president.
He (described as a financial architect) told the undercover reporters, who had posed as Chinese criminals seeking to launder dirty money from Africa, that his relationship with Akufo-Addo is a close one.
He also claims that the Ghanaian president is his lawyer.
“There’s no head of state or president that either of us can’t get to on this continent. Next door in Swaziland, the king is a close friend of mine. Zambia’s president is a close friend of my friend. DRC Congo, the president has invited me several times to come and build a refinery.
“Ghana’s president is a good friend of mine. In fact, he was my lawyer. Cyril Ramaphosa here; I know him. I know his kids,” he bragged.
Doris Oduro is seated at her modest, nearly empty shop in Odorkor, a suburb of Accra, the capital of Ghana. The mother of two feels frustrated on her own.
She has been in business for 15 years, but she is now thinking about closing since she can’t afford to replenish because of the increasing cost of living.
“I am running at a big loss,” Oduro, 38, told Al Jazeera. She sells imported items, including juices, biscuits, soft drinks, toiletries and sweets, but Ghana’s economic crisis is taking a huge toll on her business.
“Prices of goods keep soaring, and it is affecting my principal capital,” she said. “I want to close my store and find something else to do. Things are tough for me because I can’t sustain the business and I have a family to keep.”
Ghana, a country once described as Africa’s shining star by the World Bank, had the world’s fastest-growing economy in 2019 after it doubled its economic growth. But today, it is no longer the economic poster boy of West Africa.
Despite being a major cocoa and gold exporter, it is currently battling its worst financial crisis in decades with inflation hovering at a record 50.3 percent, the highest in 21 years.
Ghana’s economic successes were in the limelight when the new government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took power in January 2017 and brought down inflation significantly.
Under the previous government in 2016, it was 15.4 percent, and it fell to 7.9 percent by the end of 2019 and remained in single digits until the pandemic hit in March 2020.
Ghana’s budget deficit, which was about 6.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product before Akufo-Addo’s government came to power, was brought down to under 5 percent of GDP by the end of 2019.
“The growth that we experienced around 2017 to 2019 was actually coming from the oil sector,” Daniel Anim Amarteye, an economist with the Accra-based Policy Initiative for Economic Development, told Al Jazeera.
“We were so excited that the economy was growing, but we couldn’t devise strategies to ensure that the growth reflects in the other sectors of the economy,” he said. “For instance, we neglected the agriculture sector, and we couldn’t do any meaningful value-added investment in that sector. The government became complacent.”
According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, agriculture represents 21 percent of Ghana’s GDP and accounts for more than 40 percent of its export earnings. At the same time, it provides more than 90 percent of the food the country needs.
“Over the years, the government failed to invest in increasing output in the agricultural sector that will eventually lead to economic growth and transformation and food security. We are a major cocoa growing country, but we didn’t pay attention to increasing yields to translate into more foreign exchange earnings to drive economic growth and employment,” Amarteye said.
Ghanaian traders, who contribute significantly to the economy, mostly buy and sell products they import from Western countries and China, including home appliances, consumables, cars and second-hand clothes.
Due to the nature of their businesses, there is a persistent strong demand for the US dollar to pay for imports. This led to the continuous depreciation of the local currency, the cedi, which was recently described as the worst-performing on world markets.
As inflation surges, rising prices keep the cost of living accelerating for Ghanaians.
“Things are not the same anymore,” said Francis Anim, a vehicle spare parts importer. “I used to spend $5 a day with my wife and child on food alone early this year. Now we spend close to $10 [for the same amount of food]. Why?”
“We are feeling the heat,” he said. “The import duties are very high at the ports, so we have to pass on that burden to retailers, and eventually the consumer suffers. This has resulted in a high cost of living in Ghana, and the economy is not helping us either.”
Pension funds should be exempted from the debt exchange initiatives – Haruna Iddrisu
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A nation in crisis
The president conceded in a recent address to the nation that the West African country is in crisis. He blamed the situation on external shocks – the pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war.
However, analysts say the government took certain political and economic decisions that would have eventually exposed the weaknesses in the system even without those external factors.
For instance, to fulfil one of Akufo-Addo’s most expensive campaign pledges, his government launched a free education programme in public high schools nine months after he took office. It also provided free meals to students at primary and secondary levels.
Also in 2017, the governing New Patriotic Party scrapped what it called 15 “nuisance taxes”. These included the 17.5 percent value added tax on financial services, real estate and selected imported medicines. They also reduced import duties on spare car parts, abolished the 1 percent special import levy and the 17.5 percent VAT on domestic airline tickets.
“This brought a massive reduction in government revenue,” Williams Kwasi Peprah, a Ghanaian associate professor of finance at Andrews University in Michigan, told Al Jazeera. “To make up for the revenue shortfall, the government adopted borrowing. This increased Ghana’s bond market activities domestically and externally and, as a result, a high debt-to-GDP exposure, leading to the current debt unsustainability levels.”
From August 2017 to December 2018, Akufo-Addo’s government spent more than $2.1bn on what it called the “banking sector clean-up”.
The central bank said some banks were insolvent and were operating on life support, putting the interests of depositors at risk. The clean-up saw a reduction in the number of banks from 33 to 23 while more than 340 other financial institutions, such as savings and loans companies, had their licences revoked.
The government aimed to restore confidence and reposition the banking sector to support economic growth.
“The financial sector clean-up also cost the country more than anticipated in attaining a robust financial sector before 2022,” Peprah said.
He said the discovery of two more oilfields in 2019 led to the anticipation of more revenues. The government responded by issuing more domestic and external bonds, increasing its debt and raising spending on interest payments, social programmes and employment.
The government is Ghana’s largest employer, primarily in the fields of education, healthcare and security. It spends almost half of its budget on wages; this year, it raked in $8.2bn in estimated revenue and used about $4.2bn to pay salaries of public sector workers.
In 2017, the government also restored allowances for trainee nurses and teachers. President John Mahama lost to Akufo-Addo in the 2016 election partly for suspending those allowances two years earlier. They put a huge strain on the public purse. For the nurses’ allowances alone, the government paid more than $2.5 million annually.
“That was a poor political and economic decision the Akufo-Addo government made at that time because the country was faced with revenue challenges,” said Kwasi Yirenkyi, a financial analyst with Accra-based Data Crunchers. “The government was spending more than it was receiving, and at the same time, it failed to widen the tax net. We were slowly heading for disaster.”
Ken Ofori-Atta outlines Domestic Debt Exchange programme
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The pandemic and debt load
There was a significant drop in revenue in 2020 coupled with a rise in government expenditures. They were mainly COVID-related as the government adopted a populist approach, provided free water and electricity to citizens and fed 470,000 households during a three-week lockdown that cost the nation $9.4m.
In August 2021 Akufo-Addo began what he later admitted was “an overly ambitious” construction project of 111 hospitals with an estimated price tag of more than $1bn. Pressure kept mounting on his government to fulfil a plethora of other electoral promises, such as the construction of roads, schools and markets, forcing the government to keep borrowing and leaving an economy dogged by high public debt. The most recent data released by the central bank put the country’s debt load at $48.9bn as of September. That represents 76 percent of GDP.
“Largely, the debt that we accrued were not actually prudently used to drive economic growth,” Amarteye said. “If that was done, we could have generated sufficient inflow to be able to meet repayment obligations. Borrowing is not a bad thing, but how you use it is critical. On our part, the managers of the economy failed to invest it in the critical sectors of the economy.”
The oil-exporting country produced 39.15 million barrels of crude oil from January to September, according to the 2023 budget statement read by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta in Parliament in November. They brought in $873.25m in revenues for the eighth-largest oil producer in Africa. Although oil production declined between January and June, according to a report by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, a surge in prices resulted in the government taking in more revenue than it had expected.
“Where did all the oil revenue go to?” opposition member of parliament Isaac Adongo asked. “The economy has been on life-support system because this government kept borrowing. We have now hit the ceiling, and there is no way out.”
In spite of the challenges, the government had been optimistic that the economy would bounce back after the pandemic. However, Russia’s war in Ukraine has derailed Ghana’s economic recovery. The cedi, its currency, lost more than 50 percent of its value between January and October 2022, causing Ghana’s debt burden to rise by $6bn.
“The war affected global economies and exposed fundamental weaknesses,” Peprah said. “Within a short period, prices in Ghana had increased, leading to hyperinflation and currency devaluation affecting both macro and micro levels of the economy. The Bank of Ghana did not have the needed dollars to pay for the country’s commitments. The balance of payment had deteriorated, leading Ghana to insolvency.”
Workers and traders protested from July to September over price hikes, which have increased the cost of electricity by 27 percent and water by 22 percent.
Activists and anti-corruption campaigners have also accused the government of mismanaging public finances.
“We have gold, oil and cocoa, yet we’re still foundering as a nation,” said Bernard Mornah, a leading member of the Arise Ghana pressure group. “The level of corruption under this government is unprecedented. There are so many revenue loopholes that must be blocked. Government officials are looting state funds and assets, so how do we develop?”
A 2021 Transparency International study on perceptions of corruption in Africa ranked Ghana ninth out of 49 Sub-Saharan African countries.
Government to extend expiration date for domestic debt exchange to December 30 – Ofori-Atta
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Investor confidence dims
Investors began to lose confidence in the economy as the government grappled with liquidity challenges. They started moving their money out of Ghana. In May, Minister Ofori-Atta introduced an unpopular e-levy, which placed a 1.5 percent tax on all electronic and merchant payments, bank transfers and remittances as part of measures to increase revenue. It brought in a paltry 10 percent of its targeted amount in its first month.
In the middle of this economic storm, credit ratings firms such as Moody’s downgraded Ghana to junk status, pushing even more investors away. At this point, Ghana was forced in July to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for relief.
It was a difficult decision for Akufo-Addo to make after he had condemned his predecessor for mismanaging the economy and taking an IMF bailout.
In December, the government reached an agreement with the IMF for a $3bn loan. However, the West African country needs to carry out a comprehensive debt restructuring in order to receive the funds.
This means that Ghana will have to renegotiate the terms of its debt with its creditors, including extending repayment period, lowering the interest rate, or reducing the overall balance owed.
Formerly regarded as an investor favourite, Ghana has also suspended payments on part of its foreign debt to preserve the fast-depleting international reserve of the central bank. There is also a freeze in hiring into the public sector among many other measures taken to cut expenditure.
“The story would have been different but for the pandemic and the Russia war in Ukraine,” Deputy Finance Minister Abena Osei-Asare said. “We have instituted clear policies to return to economic growth. We are very hopeful the economy will bounce back.”
The economy has made some gains since Ghana reached the agreement with the IMF. The cedi is recovering against the US dollar, appreciating by 63.7 percent in mid-December, according to the Bank of Ghana, after suffering a year-to-date depreciation of 54.2 percent at the end of November. But economists and scholars such as Peprah believe the long-term solution is for the government to live within its means.
“The solution to the current problem is for the government to reduce expenditure and increase revenue,” Peprah said. “It needs to ensure efficient and effective allocation of resources backed by accountability.”
For his part, Amarteye said the government must be downsized, and he called for stringent measures to check corruption.
“We have to ensure that every cedi that is extended to government agencies are accounted for,” Amarteye said. “The Office of the Special Prosecutor should be empowered to be able to deal with corruption in the system. There should be fiscal discipline, and also we have to add value to our produce by supporting the private sector to lead that particular space.”
“If that is done, jobs will be created and also the economy will bounce back,” he said.
In Odorkor, shop-owner Oduro, like many Ghanaians, wants to see a thriving economy again, one in which she can do business and feed her family.
“I have played my part as a voter,” she said. “The government must play its part too – fix the economy. This is not the Ghana we came to meet.”
The UN Security Council has condemned the killing of veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Aqla and called for an immediate probe into her death.
The move followed outcry on Friday after Israeli police hit mourners at Abu Aqla’s funeral. Police said they acted after being pelted with stones.
Abu Aqla, 51, was shot dead while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
Her death has caused a surge of anger.
In a statement released on Friday, the Security Council said its members called for “an immediate, thorough, transparent, and fair and impartial investigation into the killing, and stressed the need to ensure accountability.”
Though the statement showed a rare case of Security Council unity on an issue related to Israel, reports quoting diplomatic sources said there were difficult negotiations over the text’s contents.
China succeeded in pushing the US to get rid of paragraphs denouncing abuses committed against the media globally, defending their freedom and urging their protection while covering military operations, news agency AFP reported. Instead the text said that “journalists should be protected as civilians.”
During Abu Aqla’s funeral on Friday, her coffin almost fell as police, some using batons, waded into a crowd of Palestinians gathered around it.
Footage showed a standoff between police and Palestinians gathered around the coffin in a hospital compound, before officers pushed the crowd back, with some beating and kicking mourners. Police said officers “were forced to use riot dispersal means”.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply disturbed” by the confrontations between Israeli security forces and Palestinians and the behaviour of some police.
Mr Guterres also said he was “moved by the outpouring of sympathy from the thousands of Palestinian mourners over the past two days,” which he said was a “testament” to Abu Aqla’s work and life.
Abu Aqla, a 51-year-old Palestinian American, was a veteran correspondent for Al Jazeera’s Arabic news channel and had reported on the Israel-Palestinian conflict for two decades.
A preliminary report by the Palestinian public prosecution service said the sole source of gunfire that killed the journalist on Wednesday was from Israeli forces, which were conducting a raid in the city of Jenin.
Palestinian authorities have already described her death as an assassination by Israel, which for its part has said that it remains unclear whether she died from Israeli or Palestinian fire.
An Israeli military interim report on Thursday said the fatal shot could have come from “massive fire from Palestinian gunmen”, or possibly from “a few bullets” fired by a soldier “at a terrorist who was firing at his vehicle”.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has denounced the assassination of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed while covering an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
In a Facebook message, the former President expressed his condolences to the reporter’s family and urged for an independent investigation into his death.
He praised Shireen Abu Akleh, describing her as an expert in her profession.
“The killing of ace Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is a most condemnable act. For a journalist who has for many years covered and brought us reports of events in Israel and the Middle East region, we all mourn her loss. It is our prayer that whoever pulled the trigger and any associates will be brought to justice through an Independent and transparent process,†he said.
The 51-year-old Palestinian-American journalist died, while her producer survived a bullet wound. They were “presumably” shot by Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire, according to Israel’s prime minister.
While commiserating with Al Jazeera on their loss, John Mahama took the opportunity to highlight the country’s rising number of journalist attacks.
He urged President Akufo-Addo and the Ghana Police Service to speed up the investigation into the killing of Ahmed Hussein Suale, the head undercover investigator of Tiger Eye PI.
He stated that the perpetrators of such a heinous crime should be held accountable.
“Having said that, we also note that the murderers of Ghanaian journalist, Ahmed Suale, are still walking free. We call on the Akufo-Addo administration and the Police Service to take this investigation seriously and bring the murderers to justice”.
On January 16, 2019, Ahmed Suale was assassinated in Madina, Accra. His death came as a result of his final inquiry (Number 12), which revealed corruption within the Ghana Football Association. The murder case has not been concluded three years after his death.
A Palestinian-American journalist has been shot dead while reporting for Al Jazeera on a raid by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
The Qatar-based network said Sherine Abu Aqla, 51, was shot “deliberately” and “in cold blood” by Israeli troops. Her producer was also shot and wounded.
Israel’s prime minister said it was “likely” they were shot by Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire.
It comes amid a surge in violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Palestinian president said he held the Israeli government fully responsible for what he described as a “crime of execution”.
Sherine Abu Aqla was known to millions for her coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Image source, Al Jazeera
The Israeli military said its soldiers and security forces conducted a raid on the Jenin refugee camp early on Wednesday to apprehend “terrorist suspects”.
“During the activity, tens of Palestinian gunmen fired at and hurled explosive devices toward the soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire toward the gunmen and hits were identified.”
The Palestinian health ministry said Sherine Abu Aqla was hit in the head by a live bullet as she covered the raid. She was taken to hospital in a critical condition and later pronounced dead.
Another Palestinian journalist, Al Jazeera producer Ali Samoudi, was shot in the back and was in a stable condition in hospital, the health ministry added.
“We were going to film the Israeli army operation and suddenly they shot us without asking us to leave or stop filming,” Al Jazeera cited Mr Samoudi as saying.
“The first bullet hit me and the second bullet hit Sherine. There was no Palestinian military resistance at all at the scene,” he added.
