The story in Stavanger Aftenbladet

UAE payment to suspect rights group confirmed

But what was the money for?

A Norwegian newspaper has independently confirmed the authenticity of a document published by al-bab on Tuesday showing an Emirati payment of 100,000 euros to GNRD, the human rights organisation suspected of money-laundering.

A report in Stavanger Aftenbladet (subscription) says the newspaper has established "from other sources" that the document is genuine.

It shows that on 30 August 2013, al-Mezmaah Studies and Research Center in Dubai transferred the money to GNRD (the Global Network for Rights and Development) which has its headquarters in Norway. Al-Mezmaah has connections with both the Emirati government and Mohammed Dahlan, the former head of Palestinian "preventive security" in Gaza.
  

According to Aftenbladet, this was the first Emirati payment received by GNRD, or one of the first. It is also said to be the only direct payment from al-Mezmaah. This was followed by "a significant number of transfers from various senders in the United Arab Emirates to GNRD," Aftenbladet says, adding that the flow of money from GNRD and out of Norway was also "extensive". According to Norwegian police, the total amount under investigation is around $13 million. 

It was the nature of these transactions that first aroused suspicion with the Norwegian authorities, triggering a police investigation and raids last May on GNRD's offices and the home of its founder-president, Loai Deeb. GNRD and Deeb deny money-laundering and blame the government of Qatar for the allegations against them.

One question raised by al-Mezmaah's payment is what it was for. Was it for general use or for some specific purpose? If it was the latter, GNRD's activity report for 2013 indicates several possibilities, but these are purely speculative suggestions. 

It might, for example, have been a payment for the International Human Rights Rank Indicator which GNRD published some six weeks later. GNRD described this as "the most trustful and complete" indicator of human rights across 216 countries and – very surprisingly, it placed the UAE in twelfth position worldwide, between New Zealand and Iceland. The survey was widely ridiculed on social media and GNRD eventually deleted it from the internet, though an archived copy can be found here.

However, it is worth noting that al-Mezmaah's payment was made in euros rather than Norwegian kroner. This suggests the money was not a contribution to GNRD's expenses in Norway but had been earmarked for use somewhere within the EU's euro zone.

GNRD's published financial statement for the year to 31 December 2013 shows it was using three accounts. One of these, described as its "European account", may have been denominated in euros. It had a balance equivalent to eight million kroner (880,000 euros) at the end of the year. 

The 100,000 euros from al-Mezmaah could have been intended either for general use within the euro zone or for a specific purpose. One possibility is that it was for a new office in Spain, which GNRD said it was in the process of opening. Another is that it was to fund a conference on Syria which GNRD held in Brussels on 12 September 2013 – a couple of weeks after al-Mezmaah's payment.

The Brussels conference, entitled "Against Dictatorship and Foreign Intervention in Syria", was organised by GNRD "in cooperation" with the "Alliance of Civil and Political Forces against Dictatorship and Foreign Intervention in Syria". GNRD's report of the conference has since been deleted from its website and no archived copy is available. However, a series of videos from the conference can still be found on YouTube and there's also an account of it on a Kurdish website.