A senior Hamas operative based in Istanbul allegedly used a major UK-registered Islamic charity to secretly channel millions of dollars, truckloads of goods and other resources to a terrorism-designated militant organization while presenting the operation to donors and international organizations as humanitarian relief for civilians in Gaza, according to a newly unsealed US federal complaint.
Mohammad Yousef Hasna, also known by his adopted Turkish name “Orhan Korkmaz” and the nom de guerre “Abu al-Baraa,” was arrested in the United Kingdom on July 31 and ordered detained pending extradition proceedings. The 45-year-old Istanbul resident faces three counts in the Southern District of New York: conspiracy to provide material support to Hamas, conspiracy to finance terrorism and financing terrorism. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
U.S. prosecutors describe Hasna as the global director of an unnamed UK-registered organization referred to in the complaint as the “Sham Charity.” Although the Justice Department did not disclose its actual name, the details contained in the court filing and matching public records indicate that the organization is the Al-Khair Foundation.
The complaint, filed under seal on July 24 and made public after Hasna’s arrest, presents Turkey not simply as his place of residence but as an operational and institutional hub from which he allegedly managed a global fundraising and logistics network. It also reveals that Hasna worked with the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation (TDV), an organization that is controlled by Turkey’s state-run Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), to organize a high-profile international Gaza aid summit in Istanbul while he was allegedly coordinating aid shipments and financial transactions directly with a senior Hamas official.
U.S. prosecutors describe Hasna as the global director of an unnamed UK-registered organization referred to in the complaint as the “Sham Charity.” Although the Justice Department did not disclose its actual name, the details contained in the court filing and matching public records indicate that the organization is the Al-Khair Foundation.
The complaint says the charity was founded in 2003, expanded from Islamic education to emergency relief in 2005 and later acquired a television network used for religious programming and fundraising. Al-Khair’s own account of its history contains the same details, including its establishment in 2003, its move into emergency relief in 2005 and the creation of IQRA TV by its founder. The UK Charity Commission lists Al-Khair Foundation under charity number 1126808 and reported income of £74.79 million for the financial year ending July 31, 2025.
The strongest identifying link appears in the complaint itself. An FBI footnote cites an official TDV announcement about a November 2024 summit that public records show was jointly organized by TDV and the Al-Khair Foundation. The event, titled “International Humanitarian Aid Summit: The Future of Gaza,” brought more than 200 representatives of aid organizations and academia from 40 countries to Istanbul.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hamas’s most ardent supporter, sent a video messageto the opening of the summit, while Ali Erbaş, then-head of the Diyanet and chairman of TDV’s board of trustees, addressed the gathering.
Erdogan’s endorsement of the event went beyond a routine greeting. In a video message played at the summit, he explicitly identified the Al-Khair Foundation as a co-organizer along with the government-linked Türkiye Diyanet Foundation.
“I wholeheartedly congratulate the valued members of our Türkiye Diyanet Foundation and the Al-Khair Foundation, which have taken the lead in organizing this summit concerning Gaza’s future, reconstruction and rebuilding,” Erdogan said.
His remarks confirm that Al-Khair was publicly recognized at the highest level of the Turkish government as one of the two organizations leading the event. Erdogan also welcomed participants arriving from across the Islamic world and said he believed the summit would support Turkey’s campaign on behalf of Gaza.
The presidential message gave Al-Khair considerable official legitimacy and visibility. It associated the organization with Turkey’s state-backed humanitarian diplomacy and placed it alongside TDV.
The depth of Al-Khair’s involvement was also confirmed by İzani Turan, general director of the TDV, in his promotional addressin advance of the conference.
Turan said TDV had joined forces with the Al-Khair Foundation under the leadership of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, creating what he described as a substantial international platform attended by 270 people from 33 countries.
“We extend our sincere thanks to our highly valued charitable partner, the Al-Khair Association, which covered the financial side of this meeting, including the guests’ travel, arrival, accommodation and all related expenses,” he said. The statement further demonstrates the level of institutional legitimacy Al-Khair enjoyed in Turkey.
Al-Khair’s institutional commitment to the summit was further demonstrated by the personal participation of its founder and chairman, Imam Qasim Rashid Ahmad, who attended the Istanbul conference and addressed the gathering.
Al-Khair’s institutional commitment to the summit was further demonstrated by the personal participation of its founder and chairman, Imam Qasim Rashid Ahmad, who attended the Istanbul conference and addressed the gathering.
Ahmad, who also serves as chief executive of IQRA TV, represented Al-Khair at the event along with senior officials from the Turkish government. His presence showed that the partnership with TDV was approved and promoted by the charity’s top leadership rather than arranged solely by lower-ranking employees.
During the conference, Erbaş announced that TDV and the Al-Khair Foundation planned to send 200 trucks of humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The summit’s final declaration said future aid coordination would continue under the leadership of the two organizations.
The US complaint reveals that Hasna discussed the same event with Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s Politburo and head of the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Social Development in Gaza.
In a voice message sent on November 3, 2024, Hasna told Hamad that he was organizing a conference in Turkey on November 29 and 30 called “Gaza the Day After” with what he described as the “Turkish Diyanet delegation.” Hasna said he wanted to invite representatives of UN institutions but lacked direct access to them.
He then asked Hamad, who interacted with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and other humanitarian organizations through his position in Gaza, to provide telephone numbers for officials at the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross so that invitations could be sent.
The event provided Hasna and the charity with access to Turkish state-linked institutions, international humanitarian organizations and hundreds of civil society representatives at a time when prosecutors say he was secretly acting at Hamad’s direction. The official endorsement also afforded the organization significant public legitimacy. Erdogan’s video appearance and Erbaş’s announcement of a 200-truck joint aid initiative came only weeks after Hasna allegedly discussed methods of disguising the actual ownership, destination and distribution of cargo entering Gaza.
According to the complaint, Hasna had been operating within international humanitarian structures for years. From approximately 2009 until May 2017, he served as director of the Gaza coordination office in the Humanitarian Affairs Department of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, an intergovernmental body representing 57 states.
He became a regional director at the charity in August 2018 and was promoted to global director in October 2023, shortly after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. Although the organization was registered in the United Kingdom, Hasna was primarily based in Turkey and used a Turkish telephone number ending in 9200.
Investigators found that Hamad had saved the number in his cloud-based contact list under an Arabic entry translating to “Mohammed Hasna – Part 2 – Türkiye.” The same Turkish number was linked to Hasna’s charity email address, Google Meet account and another Google account bearing his name.
The filing does not explain the origin or legal status of the Turkish name “Orhan Korkmaz.” He appears to have acquired Turkish citizenship and adopted a Turkish name. The Erdogan government has granted residency and citizenship to numerous Hamas figures, while also providing some of them with access to senior government officials. Several Turkish media reports published after his arrest in the United Kingdom also described him as a Turkish national.
The campaign was established at the initiative of Ehee Jamiyya in cooperation with more than 120 nongovernmental organizations. Al-Khair regional director Hasna and Arabic relations and digital marketing head Adham Abu Selmiya received the foreign delegation.
A Nordic Monitor investigation found that Al-Khair appears to have established a formal legal and operational presence in Turkey through the Istanbul-based Hayır Sosyal ve Yardımlaşma Derneği (Association for Charity, Social Aid and Solidarity, HSYD). Although the association’s website does not identify its executives, Hasna has been photographed meeting with international and local partners at the HSYD office. In the photographs he poses in front of a banner displaying the names and logos of Al-Khair and HSYD together, presenting them as part of the same organization.
For instance, a delegation from the International Aid Campaign is seen meeting with Al-Khair Foundation officials at the organization’s regional headquarters in Istanbul on March 11, 2021. The campaign was established at the initiative of Ehee Jamiyya in cooperation with more than 120 nongovernmental organizations. Al-Khair regional director Hasna and Arabic relations and digital marketing head Adham Abu Selmiya received the foreign delegation.
According to the association’s organizational records, the HSYD was officially established in Istanbul on July 6, 2018, as a nonprofit humanitarian and social assistance organization. It is registered with the Interior Ministry under association number 34-244-193, indicating that it passed the required police and intelligence vetting and was approved despite its questionable ties. The association was also assigned tax number 4600790812 and MERSİS number 0460079081200001. MERSİS, or Merkezi Sicil Kayıt Sistemi, is Turkey’s Central Registry Record System, a nationwide electronic database that records companies, commercial enterprises and trade-registry transactions.
The Turkish entity says it conducts or supports humanitarian programs in Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Africa. Its declared activities include emergency relief, food distribution, shelter, medical assistance, hygiene supplies, orphan sponsorship and support for vulnerable families.
The date of the HSYD’s establishment roughly coincides with the period when Hasna became a regional director of the organization described in the US complaint. Federal investigators say Hasna assumed that role in August 2018 and later became the charity’s global director in October 2023.
The existence of a formally registered association also indicates that Al-Khair’s Turkey connection went beyond conferences and temporary humanitarian campaigns. Such a structure could provide the organization with the legal means to maintain offices, employ staff, enter contracts, rent facilities and warehouses, operate bank accounts and coordinate projects with Turkish institutions.
US prosecutors allege that Hasna was not merely a humanitarian official who unknowingly dealt with institutions controlled by Hamas. They portray him as a longtime ideological supporter of the organization who openly glorified members of its armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, before later attempting to hide the organization’s role in aid distribution.
In October 2014 Hasna allegedly posted an image of an armed Hamas fighter and declared that an uprising had begun. In March 2015 he promoted a social media event featuring Hamas founder and Politburo member Rawhi Mushtaha. A month later he posted an image of Hamas co-founder Abdelaziz Rantisi holding an assault rifle, accompanied by a statement praising martyrdom.
In January 2016 Hasna posted photographs of masked and armed Hamas militants in a tunnel, describing seven fighters killed in a tunnel collapse as heroes and martyrs. He also reposted material from Hamas’s official al-Qassam website.
The operational allegations are largely based on encrypted messages, voice recordings, invoices and financial records exchanged between Hasna and Hamad.
On July 26, 2024, Hamad asked Hasna to provide video footage of aid parcels without showing signs or markings inside the storage facility. According to the FBI, the objective was to prevent viewers and donors from understanding who actually controlled or received the shipments.
Hamad, designated by the US Treasury as a global terrorist in November 2024, has occupied several senior positions in Hamas, including adviser to former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, deputy foreign minister, official spokesperson and Politburo member. As head of the Ministry of Social Development, Hamad was also positioned to control aid warehouses, recipient lists and contacts with international relief agencies.
Prosecutors allege that Hasna repeatedly accepted instructions from Hamad concerning the purchase, transport, storage, presentation and distribution of supplies.
On July 26, 2024, Hamad asked Hasna to provide video footage of aid parcels without showing signs or markings inside the storage facility. According to the FBI, the objective was to prevent viewers and donors from understanding who actually controlled or received the shipments.
Hasna agreed and informed Hamad that the charity’s allocation of seven trucks had arrived and that filming would be arranged the following week.
Four days later Hasna discussed an order involving 20,000 food parcels and 30 trucks. An invoice reproduced on page 16 of the complaint lists $661,500 for the parcels and $66,000 for transportation to Gaza, bringing the total to $727,500.
Hasna told Hamad that the order had already formally been placed with a Jordanian humanitarian organization and would be difficult to cancel. However, he assured Hamad that he remained committed to their private agreement. Investigators concluded that Hasna intended to divert approximately 5,000 parcels from the larger order to recipients selected by Hamad.
The communications indicate that organizations nominally involved in the operation were sometimes used to conceal the final destination of the cargo.
In October 2024 Hasna and Hamad discussed trucks held in Al-Arish, Egypt, and goods stored in warehouses belonging to the charity, the Jordanian organization and the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Social Development. One message said a convoy that had entered Gaza was being held at ministry warehouses and stressed the need for the nominal consignee to claim the cargo immediately.
The FBI concluded that the communications reflected a coordinated effort to move goods through a network of charities and warehouses for Hamas’s ultimate benefit while concealing the true distribution chain.
The alleged deception extended to photographs and publicity material used to demonstrate to donors that the charity had delivered aid.
On November 29, 2024, the same day the Istanbul summit was taking place, Hasna complained to Hamad that goods intended for recipients identified by Hamas had to be delivered to his own warehouse rather than directly to Ministry of Social Development facilities.
“If they go to your warehouses, I won’t be able to film or take the picture I want,” Hasna said, according to the complaint.
He told Hamad that he had rented a warehouse for $60,000 and assigned a special staff to it. The FBI interpreted the statement as evidence that Hasna wanted to photograph the goods in a location carrying his charity’s branding, even though the items were earmarked for recipients designated by Hamas.
Investigators believe this meant the charity could create or alter beneficiary records using names supplied by Hamad, enabling the Hamas official to determine who received supplies while the charity retained a formal paper trail suggesting independent humanitarian distribution.
Hasna later said that 18 of 25 incoming trucks belonged to his charity and expressed concern that unloading them elsewhere would prevent his personnel from controlling the images. He argued that the organization needed to demonstrate its credibility and ability to manage deliveries.
In another message Hasna told Hamad that his office operated two computerized central warehouses and could enter “whatever names you want” into the database.
Investigators believe this meant the charity could create or alter beneficiary records using names supplied by Hamad, enabling the Hamas official to determine who received supplies while the charity retained a formal paper trail suggesting independent humanitarian distribution.
The complaint also alleges that commercial merchandise was falsely portrayed as charitable aid. Hasna said he had told intermediaries that certain goods were commercial but wanted the seller to describe them as having been sold for charity. The FBI concluded that the goods would enter Gaza under the charity’s name and then be sold to generate revenue for Hamas.
Financial records recovered during the investigation suggest that the alleged network handled millions of dollars.
Hasna arranged the personal delivery of $3,000 in cash to Hamad in August 2024. In December he asked for both dollar and shekel-denominated bank account details so that funds could be transferred in whichever currency was available.
A ledger covering approximately July 2024 to July 2025 listed incoming funds totaling about $5.3 million and expenses of approximately $3.1 million. Expenditures included payments to named individuals, transfer fees, commissions and a “Civil protection department.”
The largest group of expenses, totaling $700,000, was recorded as being “in Dr.’s hand.” Since Hasna routinely addressed Hamad as “Doctor,” investigators concluded that the entry indicated Hamad personally received approximately $700,000.
The scale of the organization’s financial growth after October 7 is also central to the case. According to disclosures submitted to British authorities, its gross income increased from approximately $41.8 million in fiscal year 2023 to $81.56 million in 2024. For the financial year ending July 31, 2025, it reported gross income of about $100 million and spending of approximately $91.4 million on charitable activities.
The figures correspond with Al-Khair Foundation’s Charity Commission filings, which record income of £60.98 million for the year ending July 2024 and £74.79 million for the following year.
The complaint further claims that Hasna looked for alternative organizations and intermediaries after Israeli authorities linked the charity to Hamas. In August 2024 he suggested that another charity headquartered in the United States purchase goods and resell them to his organization for a small administrative fee.
Hasna said the arrangement could prevent the charity from being directly connected to the supply channel after Israel had labeled it as a terrorist organization and killed its Gaza office manager in an airstrike. The FBI interpreted the proposal as an effort to use a third organization to conceal the charity’s procurement of goods for Hamas.
The Turkey connection is particularly significant because Ankara’s policy towards Hamas differs fundamentally from that of its NATO allies. Turkey does not designate Hamas as a terrorist organization, and Erdogan has repeatedly called it a resistance or liberation movement rather than a terrorist group. Turkey has also regularly received senior Hamas officials for political meetings, and Erdogan has often provided them with an audience in his presidential office.
That political environment has allowed individuals and organizations associated with Hamas to operate publicly, participate in conferences, engage Turkish institutions and cultivate relationships with senior officials without automatically attracting the scrutiny applied to them in the United States or European Union.
This omission could indicate that U.S. officials did not trust the Erdoğan government to act against the suspect and therefore did not seek his arrest in Turkey, where such a request would certainly have faced serious obstacles given the government’s open political support for Hamas.
The Hasna case does not accuse Turkish government officials of participating in the alleged financing scheme. Yet it shows how a person accused of coordinating directly with Hamas’s Politburo could base himself in Istanbul, operate under a Turkish alias, use a Turkish telephone number and partner with one of the country’s most prominent government-linked religious foundations.
It is also worth noting that the Justice Department thanked British authorities and the Israeli Security Agency for their assistance in the investigation, while acknowledging substantial support from UK law enforcement and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. The announcement made no mention of cooperation from Turkish authorities, suggesting that Ankara was kept out of the confidential investigation. This omission could indicate that US officials did not trust the Erdogan government to act against the suspect and therefore did not seek his arrest in Turkey, where such a request would certainly have faced serious obstacles given the government’s open political support for Hamas.
In the meantime, Hasna remains in British custody while US authorities seek his extradition to New York.
Documents referenced in this article are available in the original Nordic Monitor version.
