Holy Land Charity Waits for Jury Deliberations

A federal court jury will begin deciding this week whether President Bush was correct when he declared that a Texas-based Muslim charity was an important cog in financing international terrorism.^[1] Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys are scheduled to make closing arguments Monday in the trial of Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and five of its leaders, all of which are being held on charges of aiding terrorists, conspiracy and money laundering. ^[2]

Holy Land was the largest Muslim charity in the United States. In December 2001, President Bush appeared at a Rose Garden news conference to announce that its assets had been seized and said, ''[t]he net is closing'' on those who finance terrorists.^[3] The government is asserting that Holy Land funneled more than $12 million to Palestinian schools and charities controlled by Hamas after the U.S. government had already declared Hamas a terrorist group, thus making the asserted support illegal.^[4]

The government's case relies heavily on thousands of pages of documents such as bank records and on video and audio tapes that showed some of the defendants meeting with Hamas members and supporters.^[5]

A letter sent to Shukri Abu Baker, Holy Land's chief executive, assessed whether leaders of the Palestinian charities were friend or foe. But the letter, and much of the other evidence in the case, is dated to the early 1990s or before.^[6] A key witness was an Israeli official who was allowed to testify without being identified and he acknowledged that none of the groups appeared on U.S. government terrorist lists, at that time.^[7]

Testimony in the trial lasted nearly two months. On Thursday, Judge A. Joe Fish gave each side six hours for closing arguments and hinted the presentations could last more than two days.^[8] The jury could begin deliberations Wednesday where the verdict may hinge on whether a jury of 12 ordinary Texans believes that Hamas controlled Palestinian charities that received Holy Land money.^[9]

Prosecutors declined to call many of the people on their witness list, including Mohamed Shorbagi who is a former Holy Land representative who pleaded guilty last year to supporting Hamas; he was supposed to testify about the relationship between Holy Land and Hamas.^[10] Laurie L. Levenson, a former federal prosecutor, believes Dallas prosecutors didn't want to expose Shorbagi to cross-examination by Holy Land's lawyers.^[11] “A witness who looks untrustworthy on cross-examination can do more harm than good to the government's case,” she said.^[12]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has previously written about the trial of Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development terrorism crimes blog, these posts can be found here.

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^[1] David Koenig, Muslim charity trial enters closing stages, Associated Press Newswire, September 17, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.
^[12] Id.