DALLAS, 18 July 2007 — Jury selection began Monday for one of the most prominent anti-terrorist prosecutions of the past decade, the trial of leaders of a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Authorities maintain that the funds sent by the defendants and the charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, were used by Hamas to support the families of suicide bombers in the Middle East.
But the men and their lawyers maintain the prosecution is based on anti-Arab bias and that the funds were not connected to the Hamas and were used to help build hospitals and schools for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
The defendants named in a 42-count indictment in 2004 are Holy Land, which federal authorities raided and shut down in December 2001; Shukri Abu Baker, the charity’s president; Ghassan Elashi, its chairman; Abdulrahman Odeh; Mohammad El-Mezain; and Mufid Abdulqader. Two other men named in the indictment remain fugitives.
The charges include supporting a foreign terrorist group, money laundering, conspiracy and filing false tax returns. Although the FBI investigated the men and the charity in the 1990s, the Bush administration raised the profile of the case since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. President George W. Bush announced the seizure of the charity’s assets in a Rose Garden news conference three months later, in December 2001.
The trial before District Judge A. Joe Fish is expected to last several months. Prosecutors and defense lawyers are expected to lay out the case in opening statements next Monday. According to the indictment, Holy Land raised more than $57 million from 1992 to 2001 and sent about $36 million to individuals and groups tied to Hamas, including $12.4 million after President Bill Clinton designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1995, which made contact with the group illegal.
Elashi is in federal prison near Dallas on other convictions, including financial dealings with a top Hamas official. Baker, Odeh, Mezain and Abdulqader have been free while preparing for the trial, according to a prosecution spokeswoman.
In a court filing in May that spelled out much of their case, prosecutors said Holy Land was sometimes called “The Fund” and was “an integral part of the Hamas social infrastructure.” They said the organization was created “to support the Hamas agenda,” which includes suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks.
Prosecutors said documents seized in 2004 from the Virginia home of an unindicted co-conspirator showed that Elashi, Baker and Mezain were part of a committee coordinating support for Hamas in the United States.
