A Muslim charity and five of its former leaders were convicted on Monday of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
US District Judge Jorge Solis announced the guilty verdicts on all 108 counts on the eighth day of deliberations in the retrial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the nation’s largest Muslim charity. It was the biggest such financing case since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“Money is the lifeblood of terrorists, plain and simple,” US Attorney Richard Roper said. “The jury’s decision attacks terrorism at its core.”
PHOTO: AP
The convictions follow the collapse of Holy Land’s first trial last year and defeats in other cases the government tried to build.
After Monday’s verdict, family members showed little visible reaction until the jury left. Several women sobbed loudly.
“My dad’s not a criminal!” one nearly inconsolable woman said loudly. Court personnel told the family to calm her down, and as family members rushed her out of the courtroom, she said, “They treated him like an animal.”
Ghassan Elashi, Holy Land’s former chairman, and Shukri Abu-Baker, the chief executive, were convicted of a combined 69 counts, including supporting a specially designated terrorist, money laundering and tax fraud.
Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh were convicted of three counts of conspiracy, and Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted of one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organization. Holy Land itself was convicted of all 32 counts.
“I feel heartbroken that a group of my fellow Americans fell for the prosecution’s fear-mongering theory,” Elashi’s daughter, Noor, said outside the courthouse late on Monday. “This is truly a low point for the United States of America, but this is not over.”
Attorneys for the defendants said an appeal is planned.
A sentencing date hasn’t been scheduled.
Solis ordered the Holy Land leaders detained, citing the long prison terms they may face and their ties to the Middle East.
Holy Land was accused of giving more than US$12 million to support Hamas. The seven-week retrial ran about as long as the original, which ended in October last year when a judge declared a mistrial on most charges.
Holy Land wasn’t accused of violence. Rather, the government said the Richardson, Texas-based charity financed schools, hospitals and social welfare programs controlled by Hamas in areas ravaged by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The US designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1995 and again in 1997, making contributions to the group illegal. Government officials raided Holy Land’s headquarters in December 2001 and shut it down.
Prosecutors labeled Holy Land’s benefactors — called zakat committees — as terrorist recruiting pools. The charities, the government argued, spread Hamas’ violent ideology and generated loyalty and support among Palestinians.
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