DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - TEXAS: "HOLY LAND" CHARITY GOES ON TRIAL

Trial to begin for Texas-based Muslim charityGroup and five of its officers are accused of funding Hamas
By THOMAS KOROSEC

DALLAS — A Richardson-based Muslim charity and five of its officers are scheduled to go on trial here today on charges related to claims that it funneled at least $12.4 million to Hamas, a Palestinian group the U.S. government says is a terrorist organization.

The trial comes at the end of a long-running federal investigation that began with FBI agents surveiling officials of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development at a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia.

A 2004 federal indictment alleges the group was set up in 1988 to provide financial and material support to Hamas, a radical Islamist group that sponsors suicide bombings in Israel and has gained political power in the Palestinian territories.

President Bush closed the charity by executive order in December 2001 and froze $4 million of its assets. At the time it was the largest Muslim charity in the U.S.

Leaders of the foundation have maintained they aided only health clinics, orphanages and others in need.

"This case involves whether humanitarian assistance in Palestine is going to be treated as a crime," said defense lawyer John Boyd, who is representing both the charity and its chief executive and co-founder, Shukri Abu Baker, a 48-year-old Garland resident.

"There is no allegation that the Holy Land Foundation gave money to Hamas or that any of its funds were used for terrorism," Boyd said.

The 42-count indictment alleges that the foundation supported Hamas through donations to charity committees and other organizations in the West Bank and Gaza under Hamas' control. It also accuses the group of funding "family members of individuals who were either 'martyred' or jailed for terrorist related activities."

The group's intent was allegedly to "effectively reward past, and encourage future suicide bombings and terrorist activities" by Hamas.

"Not only did HLF operate to support the Hamas agenda, but it was created for that very purpose," a government brief contends.

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N. Texas Muslims say Holy Land case is political
Family speaks of a decade of searches, interrogations, arrests
By JASON TRAHAN

For many North Texas Muslims, the Holy Land Foundation investigation is a saga fueled by prejudice.

Local Muslim leaders have long decried the government's "witch hunt" of what they say was a charitable foundation dedicated to helping Palestinian refugees caught up in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

They say the investigation and the trial of Holy Land and seven of its organizers is a product of "Islamophobia," which was the focus of a conference last weekend in Dallas sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"This politically driven indictment will break new ground and potentially make new law by attempting to criminalize humanitarian aid," said Khalil Meek, president of the Plano-based Muslim Legal Fund of America, which is helping pay for the Holy Land defendants' attorneys.

For the family of Ghassan Elashi, the trial is the latest in more than a decade of troubles with the federal government. Investigations have included interrogations, searches, arrests and the wiretapping of conversations.

"The trial has taken over my thoughts during the day and my dreams during the night," said Noor Elashi, daughter of Mr. Elashi and a reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Prosecutors accuse Mr. Elashi and his co-defendants of using Richardson-based Holy Land to funnel millions of dollars to the terrorist organization Hamas.

But for the 21-year-old, the case is about her father's name and reputation.

"While I'm driving, while I'm working, while I'm eating, it's all I think about," she said. "I keep asking myself, 'How can my father and the other co-defendants be accused of supporting heinous acts of violence when all they did was feed, clothe and help educate Palestinian orphans and widows?' "

Today's trial is the third involving her family members. In 2004 and 2005, her father and uncles defended themselves against accusations that they did business with terrorist nations by shipping computer equipment to Syria and Libya.

Defense attorneys argued that the government's accusations were overblown because the men were Muslim and amounted to nothing more than minor export violations that should have been handled with a fine.

They were also accused of having financial dealings with a high-ranking Hamas member, Mousa Abu Marzook, who is married to a cousin of the Elashis. The family says the money was actually an annuity investment in InfoCom by Mr. Marzook's wife. She used the monthly proceeds to pay living expenses, attorneys for the brothers said.

The juries returned convictions in both trials.

"It's unimaginable that a man who loves America so much would face such tribulations in the country he now calls home," Ms. Elashi said.

Ms. Elashi said her father was uprooted from his childhood Palestinian home in 1967, along with his parents and four brothers. The family settled in the U.S. about 25 years ago and has called it home since.

"America is the only home that my five siblings and I have ever known – from my brother who lives and breathes skateboarding, to my teenage sister, whose favorite show is Gilmore Girls."

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Pertinent Links:

1) Trial to begin for Texas-based Muslim charityGroup and five of its officers are accused of funding Hamas

2) N. Texas Muslims say Holy Land case is political