Thousands of pounds of Lottery funding intended for drama workshops may have been funnelled to Turkish terrorists through a community centre in Tottenham, a court has heard.
Police believe £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund and hundreds more in charity donations have been used to finance the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), an ultra-Left-wing group responsible for assassinations and suicide bombings.
Anti-terror officers raided the Anatolian People’s Cultural Centre in Seven Sisters Road last month and uncovered evidence that it had been used for the past two years as a “terrorist hub”, sending money to the Turkish revolutionaries.
They convinced District Judge Michael Snow, sitting at Westminster magistrates’ court, to shut the centre for three months, presenting a dossier of evidence including a shrine to fallen terrorists referred to as “Justice Warriors”, stacks of extremist literature, and photographs of two DHKP-C gunmen who shot and killed a Turkish state prosecutor.
The extremists subscribe to a violent Marxist ideology and have been waging a war against “Western imperialism” in Turkey for more than 25 years, including a plot to assassinate the prime minister and a suicide bombing at the US embassy in Ankara in 2013. Barrister Charles Streeten, for the Met Police, said: “The premises act as a terrorist hub — a focal point for DHKP-C activity and in particular for activities relating to garnering support, both financial and ideological, for the DHKP-C.”
During the 6am raid on April 6, officers found “correspondence requesting money from the National Lottery Fund and a receipt for £10,000 nominally to fund a trip in 2011”, as well as 60 charity collection tins in DHKP-C colours.
“The obvious inference to be drawn, especially in the context of the other items discovered during the execution of the warrant and the information gathered through the open source research is that that undeclared income is being siphoned off to fund the DHKP-C,” said Mr Streeten.
A spokesman for the Big Lottery Fund confirmed the Anatolian People’s Cultural Centre had applied for and received £10,000 in 2010 for a series of drama workshops in Hackney “to encourage different generations to integrate”.
However, the money was never declared to the Charity Commission and the organisation has not filed tax returns since 2011, the court heard.
Mr Streeten added: “The Anatolian People’s Cultural Centre would appear to be little more than a front for terrorist activity.” The closure order will remain in force until July 22.
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