Legal News

On Second Try, US Wins Convictions Against Hamas-tied Charity

By Jennifer Forsyth

Associated Press

Friends and family members of five members of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development walk out of the Earl Cabell Federal Court Building following the conviction of all five members, in Dallas, Monday, Nov. 24, 2008.

The first trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., ended in a mess. The federal trial in Dallas last year lasted nearly two months and jury deliberation took 19 days, only to have the jury deadlock on many counts. When the judge polled the jurors on the counts they did issue verdicts on, some disavowed their votes. U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish declared a mistrial. Many who observed the trial wondered if the case, which accused the charity of sponsoring terrorism in the Middle East, was too complex for the jury to grasp. (See this previous LB post.)

Prosecutors’ efforts to streamline the storyline of the case must have proved successful as a Dallas jury convicted Monday on all 108 counts brought against the charity and five of its former leaders. Here’s the AP story. It was a huge victory for the government’s team, (AUSA Barry Jonas handled closing arguments), in the most important terrorism financing trial since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Defense attorneys, who accused the government of bending to Israeli pressure to prosecute the charity, immediately began discussing possible appeals, according to this report in the Dallas Morning News. This past summer, according to this DMN report, court-appointed attorneys for the charity complained that they weren’t paid a fraction of what was needed to put up a defense for their clients.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 25, 2008 (boomark / email).