Charity guilty of funding terror
A Muslim charity and five of its former leaders have been convicted offunding the Palestinian militant group Hamas, designated a terroristgroup in the US.Jurors reached the guilty verdict after eight days of deliberations inthe retrial of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief andDevelopment.
The group - once the largest US Muslim charity - was accused of givingmore than $12m (£8m) to support Hamas.It was the largest terrorism financing trial since the 9/11 attacks.The former head of the charity, Ghassan Elashi, and the former chiefexecutive, Shukri Abu-Baker, were convicted of 69 counts including moneylaundering and tax fraud.Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh were convicted on three counts ofconspiracy, and Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted on one count ofconspiracy to support a terrorist organisation.
The Holy Land group was convicted on 32 counts. A sentencing date hasyet to be announced.Frozen assetsHamas was designated by the US as a terrorist group in 1995, makingcontributions to the group illegal.The prosecution argued that Hamas controlled the charities to which$12.4m was sent between 1995 and 2001.
The indictment against the group said it sponsored orphans and familiesin the West Bank and Gaza whose relatives had died or been imprisoned asa result of Hamas attacks on Israel.
The Texas-based charity was shut down and had its assets frozen in 2001,as part of the clampdown that followed the 11 September attacks on NewYork and Washington.
The charity said it ran a legitimate operation helping Muslim families.Holy Land's supporters accused the US government of politicising thecase as part of its so-called "war on terror".
A previous trial against Holy Land ended last year in some confusionwith the jury deadlocked, prompting a mistrial verdict and a subsequentretrial.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/7747187.stmPublished: 2008/11/24 22:06:59 GMT
Posts
