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| Closing arguments to start in Holy Land case |
| 2008-11-10 |
| Jurors in the Holy Land Foundation retrial will hear closing arguments starting today, and then they begin days or even weeks of deliberations on the largest terrorism financing case in U.S. history. Prosecutors hope that evidence in their case, overhauled after last year's mistrial, proves that the defendants used the former Richardson-based charity to funnel more than $12 million to the Palestinian group Hamas, which is deemed a terrorist group by the U.S. government. Defense lawyers will stress in their closing arguments that Holy Land was once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. and followed a "need, not creed" philosophy by helping Palestinian families living under oppressive Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since opening statements on Sept. 22, prosecutors have shown jurors seized documents that they say prove Holy Land, formed in the late '80s, was designated from the start as Hamas' chief fundraising machine. Travel records reveal that Holy Land flew radical Hamas clerics to the U.S. to headline often raucous fundraising festivals, featuring open support of Hamas and talk of "economic jihad" against the Israelis in their decades-long land struggle. Some of the defendants were caught on clandestine FBI recordings of private meetings plotting to derail Arab-Israeli peace deals and in intercepted phone calls praising Hamas suicide bombings. The FBI tracked millions in wire transfers to and from Hamas operatives and a series of Palestinian charity groups, called zakat committees, which the government contends are Hamas front groups in the occupied territories. Records show that much of Holy Land's aid money went to families of suicide bombers and Hamas political prisoners. But the defense says that most of the government's evidence predates 1995, the year when support of Hamas became illegal in the U.S. They have characterized the Justice Department's nearly 15-year investigation of Holy Land as a witch hunt spurred by pressure from the Israelis, who supplied prosecutors with most of their evidence linking the zakat committees to Hamas. The defense presented jurors with a former high-ranking State Department official who testified that Hamas did not control the zakat committees. And none of those committees, even today, are listed on government terrorist lists, they point out. Jurors have a tough job ahead. Deliberations in last year's trial of the same five defendants collapsed after 19 days on Oct. 22, 2007. There were no convictions in that trial, but the jury acquitted one defendant of all charges and found two others not guilty on several charges before a juror changed her mind at the last minute. That prompted a mistrial that voided all their verdicts except for several not-guilty counts on one defendant. He still faces one conspiracy charge. This time around, prosecutors pared down the number of charges against the defendants and significantly overhauled their presentation, which previously was criticized as confusing, boring and lacking in context. During testimony this fall, they worked in repeated references to the investigation's key players, pausing frequently to spell Arabic names. They rolled out more and better charts, graphically illustrating relationships and key points. What will probably be most helpful to jurors – who must plow through more than 500 exhibits, including reams of translated Arabic documents and mountains of banking records – is a series of evidence road maps. These direct jurors to specific page numbers of documents that prosecutors say prove the zakat committees were controlled by Hamas – which is key to getting convictions. Prosecutors also packed in six additional witnesses, yet managed to shave off about two weeks from last year's two-month-long presentation. One of the most anticipated new witnesses this year was Mohamed Shorbagi, Holy Land's former Georgia representative. He is serving more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to giving support to Hamas. His testimony, viewed by a courtroom packed with Holy Land supporters, was that it was well-known in the Palestinian community here and abroad that the Richardson group's money went to Hamas. He said Hamas, which sponsors suicide bombings against Israelis, was widely viewed as a good steward of the money. Defense attorneys attacked his credibility, pointing out that he was getting time off his prison sentence for testifying. The government's most controversial returning witness was "Avi," an Israeli Security Agency lawyer. He testified that it was well-known in the occupied territories and in Israeli intelligence that Hamas operatives staffed and controlled the zakats. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Once they're convicted, maybe the whole lot of them will receive a Presidential Pardon from the Obamunists. |
| Posted by: Sonny Ebbeamp1305 2008-11-10 07:53 |