Holy Land Case Has Confusing End

The judge in the oft talked about Holy Land Charity case declared a mistrial Monday for most former leaders of the Muslim charity.^[1] The majority of the accused were charged with financing Middle Eastern terrorists after jurors failed to reach a verdict.^[2]

After a long weekend of waiting, things quickly got confusing in the courtroom when three of the accused were initially found not guilty of funneling illegal aid to terrorists.^[3] Charity fundraiser Mufid Abdulqader was cleared on all counts.^[4] Two others, El-Mezain and Abdulrahman Odeh, were acquitted on several counts.^[5]

Then as U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish was going through the typically routine process of asking each juror about his or her findings, three of them surprisingly said the verdicts read in court were wrong.^[6] This caught the forewoman off guard who said, "When we voted, there was no issue in the vote, no one spoke up any different. I really don't understand where it is coming from. All 12 made that decision."^[7] About an hour later, Fish said he received a note from jury saying 11 of 12 feel further deliberations will not lead them to reach a unanimous decision; shortly thereafter he declared a mistrial.^[8]

When Fish polled the jurors a second time after more deliberations, they did find El-Mezain guilty of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; however, he was acquitted of 31 other charges and they could not reach a verdict on the other two initially found not guilty.^[9]

The mistrial was a temporary victory for the former Holy Land leaders, who steadfastly asserted that they ran a legitimate charity.^[10] Fish still said he plans to send the case back to court for reassignment, although it's not clear if the government will retry the defendants.^[11]

In all, five former Holy Land leaders and the charity were accused of providing aid to the Middle Eastern militant group Hamas.^[12] The U.S. government designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1995 and again in 1997, making financial transactions with the group illegal.^[13]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed this case extensively in his terrorism crimes blog. These posts can be found here, here and here.

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^[1] David Koenig, Mistrial declared for most in Muslim charity trial, Associated Press Newswire, October 22, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] CP Staff, 3 jurors dispute not guilty verdicts in Muslim charity terror-funding trial, Canadian Press, October 22, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[3] Koenig, supra note 1.
^[4] CP Staff, supra note 2.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Koenig, supra note 1.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.
^[12] Id.
^[13] Id.