Zolfa Elaydi, center, with her children Fidaa, left, and Jihad, reacting to news that the leaders of a Muslim charity had been convicted on Monday in Dallas. PHOTO: Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — A U.S. court has convicted a Muslim charity and five of its former leaders on 108 charges in the largest “terrorism” financing trial in U.S. history.
The Texas jury reached its verdict on Monday after eight days of deliberations over whether the former Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the largest U.S. Muslim charity, had given money to the Palestinian group Hamas.

The charity, which was shut down seven years ago, was accused of giving more than $12m to support Hamas, which was designated a “terrorist organization” in 1995 by the U.S. government.

The hour-long verdict, following a seven-week trial, came after a first trial ended in October 2007 with one man acquitted on 31 charges but jurors unable to agree on verdicts for others.

Several relatives of those convicted on Monday wept as the verdict was read out in the Dallas courtroom, with one woman shouting “my father is not a criminal.”

Ghassan Elashi, Holy Land’s former chairman, and Shukri Abu-Baker, the charity’s ex-chief executive, were convicted of a combined 69 charges, including supporting a specially-designated “terrorist” organization, money-laundering and tax fraud, The Associated Press reported.

Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh were convicted on three counts of conspiracy, and Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted on one count of conspiracy to support a “terrorist organization.”

The Holy Land foundation itself was convicted on all 32 counts.

While prosecutors said the foundation raised money for Hamas, they did not accuse the charity of directly financing or being involved in “terrorist” activity.

Prosecutors said the charity was spreading Hamas’s ideology by funding schools, hospitals and social welfare programs controlled by the group in the Palestinian territories, and permitting it to divert funds to the activities of fighters.

However, the charity’s supporters said the government was politicizing the case as part of its so-called war on terror and ignoring the foundation’s charitable mission in providing aid to the poverty-stricken Palestinian territories.

Government officials had raided Holy Land’s headquarters in December 2001, and George Bush, the U.S. president, later announced the seizure of the charity’s assets as “another step in the war on terrorism.”

But defense lawyers said their clients had been put on trial partly because of their family ties to members of Hamas — Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’s political leader exiled in Syria, is the brother of defendant Mufid Abdulqader.

Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman, reporting from Dallas, Texas, where the court case took place, said a former U.S. State Department official testified that he was never told that Hamas directed the U.S. charity during intelligence briefings.

But an unidentified Israeli witness told the court that the aid was funneled through Hamas channels.

Lydia Gonzalez of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the defendants did not get a fair trial.

“When you’re supposed to be able to face your accusers fully and against secret evidence and secret witness, I think that leads to reasonable doubt.”

Muslim groups say the prosecution has made American Muslims more hesitant to fulfil their religious obligation of helping the needy and the foundation’s defenders accuse the government of selectively prosecuting the charity.

“The same charities that these guys gave to, the American Red Cross is still giving to, the USAID is still giving to,” Mustafaa Carroll of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said.

Noor Elashi, Ghassan Elashi’s daughter, said she was proud of her father and said he was “paying the price” for saving lives.

“My dad was persecuted for his political beliefs. It’s as pure and simple as that,” she said.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council released a statement after the verdict expressing surprise at the outcome, “given that the original trial ended last year with a U.S. District Court Judge acquitting five defendants on charges of aiding terrorists abroad, and declaring a mistrial on the remaining 197 counts brought against the Holy Land Foundation.”

“The jury also found that the defendants must forfeit the $12.4 million in Holy Land funds which were seized when the organization was shut down in 2001. The charitable funds were collected by the organization from American Muslim donors to provide aid to needy Palestinians. MPAC believes that these funds should be dispersed to another charitable organization that is providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians living under occupation, as intended by Muslim American donors fulfilling their zakat (almsgiving) obligations.”