Terror group's assets frozen

Chancellor Gordon Brown today ordered financial institutions to freeze any funds held on behalf of the terror group which kidnapped and murdered Ken Bigley in Iraq.

Mr Brown told the Bank of England, acting as agents for the Treasury, to instruct all financial institutions to put a hold on "any funds which they hold for or on behalf of the group Jama'at al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad (JTJ)".

It will now be a criminal offence for any financial institution to deal in any way with funds held by JTJ and any existing funds cannot be released.

It was not immediately clear whether the Treasury knows if JTJ has any assets in the UK.

The asset freeze, made under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001, makes it a criminal offence for any financial institution to hold or handle funds held by the group.

It covers the assets of terrorists themselves but more importantly people controlled by them or acting on their behalf.

At this point it is impossible to know whether the group has any such assets in the UK but the freeze process should uncover any there are.

Treasury sources indicated that the measure was the first step in a process that would hopefully end with the United Nations making JTJ a banned organisation - preventing it from fundraising anywhere in the world.

Mr Bigley was murdered a week ago by the group, known as Tawhid and Jihad and led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, after being held for three weeks