2008 Woodie Awards
Islamic foundation on trial
Adam Asmar
Issue date: 11/12/07 Section: Opinion
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The prosecuting attorneys said the foundation was sending funds they raised to Hamas, a Palestinian group classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. So why were they not able to convince the jury of this?
The Holy Land Foundation was a Muslim charity, based in Richardson, that aided poor families in Palestine as well as thousands of refugees living outside of Palestine who were displaced by years of war.
The organization was shut down in 2001 under direct orders of President George W. Bush. Six men were given 197 indictments ranging from tax evasion to aiding and funding a foreign terrorist organization.
After having almost six years to develop the case, the U.S. government brought the issue to trial last July. From the start, the trial appeared to be unfair. U.S prosecutors enlisted secret Israeli witnesses to testify on their behalf.
I am not a lawyer, but when there is a public trial and key witnesses testify under total anonymity, the government is flirting with the violation of Fifth Amendment rights guaranteeing due process of law. The bottom line is secret witnesses are not conducive to having a fair trial.
After nearly three months of trial and many days of deliberation, the jury was not able to return with one single guilty verdict. The only verdicts reached were those of not guilty to about 40 of some 197 indictments brought against them.
In an interview with KERA, the Dallas public broadcast station, one juror described how a few of the jurors had their hearts set on guilty from the start of the trial. He said no amount of persuasion would have changed those jurors' minds.
Why go to all this effort, why close one of the largest Muslim charities in the country? Why tear apart the lives of dozens of family members?
Noor Elashi, the daughter of Ghassan Elashi, one of the defendants, said it seems it's a crime in the U.S. to aid Palestinians.
She said she felt betrayed by her government because she feels it has given into Israeli pressure.
I must say I feel the same way. A sense of betrayal is deep within me when I reflect upon the thousands of tax dollars used to prosecute these men. It also feels like a slap in the face to the thousands of impoverished Palestinians who rely on the continuous generosity of everyday people who want to try and help them make ends meet.
My hope now is that the prosecutors in this case will drop all charges and follow in the footsteps of other failed prosecutors who have attempted to bring about similar charges.
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