Mariam Appeal

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The Mariam Appeal ("the Appeal") was a political campaign in the United Kingdom (UK) established in 1998. The objects of the Appeal as stated in its constitution were: "to provide medicines, medical equipment and medical assistance to the people of Iraq; to highlight the causes and results of the cancer epidemic in Iraq and to arrange for the Peter Bridie medical treatment of a number of Iraqi children outside Iraq". The campaign was founded by UK Member of Parliament George Galloway. Princess Sarvath, wife of then Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan, was patron of the Appeal.

The Mariam Appeal was intended "to campaign against sanctions on Iraq which are having disastrous effects on the ordinary people of Iraq." The campaign was named after Mariam Hamza, a child flown by the fund from Iraq to Britain to receive treatment for leukaemia. The intention was to raise awareness of the suffering and death of tens of thousands of other Iraqi children due to poor health conditions and lack of suitable medicines and facilities, and to campaign for the lifting of the sanctions seen by many as a direct cause of those problems.

Among the activities undertaken was a daily newsletter on sanctions, a sanctions-busting flight to Baghdad, the Big Ben to Baghdad trip in a red London bus, meetings and conferences, the projection of an anti-war slogan on the House of Commons, and the facilitating of trips to Iraq by dozens of journalists.

The fund received scrutiny during the 2003 Gulf war, after a complaint that Galloway used some of the donation money to pay his travel expenses. ^[1] Galloway, however, denied that he had misused any funds raised for the Mariam Appeal and pointed out that it was not unreasonable for money from a campaign fund to be used to pay for the travel expenses of campaigners.

1 Charity Commission investigation
2 Notes
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Charity Commission investigation

The Mariam Appeal was investigated by the Charity Commission even though the Commission's authority extends only to England and Wales. The Appeal was established in Scotland, and was never a registered charity and never intended to be such. The report of this year-long inquiry was published in June 2004. It opened up the Mariam Appeal's bank account and revealed that the major funders to be the United Arab Emirates, a donor from Saudi Arabia and the Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat (later alleged to be implicated in the Oil-for-Food Programme scandal).

The Charity Commission found that the Mariam Appeal had done charitable work and raised significant funds, so should have registered with them and published accounts, taking the view that the legal advice the Appeal founders had taken that the constitution did not create a charity was wrong. It established that Dr. Amineh Abu-Zayyad (a Muslim Palestinian, who became Galloway's wife from 2000 to 2005) and Stuart Halford, two of the original trustees, had received unauthorised benefits in the form of salary payments from the Appeal’s funds, although the executive committee considered these payments necessary and were unaware that they were unauthorised.

The Charity Commission did not find other evidence to support the allegations that funds had been misused. Some of the Appeal's books and records had been sent to Amman and Baghdad in 2001 when Fawaz Zuriekat took over as Chairman of the Appeal and could not now be located. The Appeal had not produced annual profit and loss accounts or balance sheets.

The Charity Commission took the view that the political activities of the Appeal were ancillary to the charitable purposes of the Appeal and that the Trustees could reasonably have formed the view that this would have the impact of enabling treatment for sick children.

As the Appeal was by this time closed, full records were unavailable, that the founders believed on legal advice that they had not created a charity, and there was no evidence that the funds of the Appeal were misapplied (other than for salaries), the Charity Commission decided to take no further action other than informing the Trustees of their mistakes.