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| Al-Arian Trial Shifts Focus To Money |
| 2005-06-30 |
| TAMPA - In a trial thus far lampooned for dry, sleep-inducing testimony, prosecutors in the terror-support case against Sami Al-Arian shifted gears Wednesday by showing jurors the money. An Illinois-based money exchanger testified about a series of financial transfers he carried out in 2001 and 2002 at the direction of defendant Hatim Fariz. Receipts produced by Salah Daoud show most of the money went to two men identified as Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in the Al-Arian indictment. In addition, one transfer went to the Elehssan Society, designated last month by the Treasury Department as an Islamic Jihad fundraising front. Daoud works for Middle East Financial Services, which transfers funds from the United States to the Middle East. The receipts he produced total nearly $60,000 in transfers and directly relate to 22 counts in the 53-count indictment - 11 counts of money laundering and 11 counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Fariz, a Spring Hill resident who moved here from the Chicago area, is named in all of them. Al-Arian is charged with six of the financial counts, and fellow defendant Ghassan Ballut is charged in 18 counts. The men also are charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder abroad through their support for the Islamic Jihad. Daoud, who was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony, pointed out that more than 90 percent of the money was sent during the holy month of Ramadan, a time when Muslims are expected to give zakat, or charity, to the needy. However, according to the indictment, secretly recorded telephone conversations show that the money was to aid the Islamic Jihad and its members. Fariz sent $7,000 to a man named Salah Abu Hassanein on Nov. 10, 2002, records show. Earlier that day, he told Hassanein to come up with a new name for the Elehssan Society because U.S. officials recognized the name and wouldn't let money go to it, the indictment says. Fariz also told Hassanein to use the money as he pleased but that he needed receipts to ``gain the trust of the donors in the United States,'' the indictment says. Hassanein offered Fariz Elehssan's bank account number for the transfer, but Fariz rejected that, the indictment says. Secret Recordings Prosecutors used Daoud's testimony to offer the first secret recordings into evidence. They show Fariz and Daoud discussing transfers. In one, Fariz says a transfer needs to be done immediately ``because the food packages for Ramadan have been distributed already and the merchants are waiting for their money.'' Defense attorneys have said the money did go to charity and that Fariz strongly admires Sheik Naim Naseer Bulbol, a member of the Elehssan Society who received at least six of the money transfers discussed Wednesday. Defense attorneys want to depose Bulbol where he lives in the Gaza Strip. But prosecutors have balked at that, arguing they have no means to charge him should they believe he lied in his testimony. Daoud also testified that he is a member of Chicago's Islamic Association for Palestine chapter. Federal law enforcement officials suspect the association provides support to Hamas, the Islamic Jihad's former rival in militant Palestinian nationalism. The Manifesto The trial is in recess until July 11. Before adjourning, U.S. District Judge James Moody allowed federal prosecutor Cherie Krigsman to read extended portions of the Islamic Jihad's internal manifesto to jurors. Investigators found the document in a computer drive at the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, a think tank founded by Al-Arian, during a 1995 search. Each juror received a copy to follow the reading. Moody told jurors he admitted it into evidence as a statement that advances the Islamic Jihad conspiracy. However, he cautioned that merely possessing the document ``is not proof of being a member of such a conspiracy.'' Israeli academics and intelligence officials told The Tampa Tribune in 2002 that they were not aware the document, which stresses secrecy in all dealings, existed before it was discovered in Tampa. Defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed to the translation, which labels the manifesto ``bylaws'' of the Islamic Jihad. It rejects ``any peaceful solution for the Palestinian cause and [affirms] the jihad solution and the martyrdom style as the only option for liberation.'' It also refers to the United States as ``the Great Satan'' and calls for creating ``a state of terror, instability and panic in the souls of Zionists.'' |
| Posted by:Mrs. Davis |