US: Muslim charity leaders on trial for funneling money to terrorists

But of course they claim that the case is based on anti-Arab bias and that none of the money went to terrorists.

DALLAS: Jury selection began Monday for one of the most prominent anti-terrorist prosecutions of the past decade, the trial of leaders of a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Authorities maintain that the funds sent by the defendants and the charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, were used by Hamas to support the families of suicide bombers in the Middle East. But the men and their lawyers maintain the prosecution is based on anti-Arab bias and that the funds were not connected to the Hamas and were used to help build hospitals and schools for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

The defendants named in a 42-count indictment in 2004 are Holy Land, which federal authorities raided and shut down in December 2001; Shukri Abu Baker, the charity's president; Ghassan Elashi, its chairman; Abdulrahman Odeh; Mohammad El-Mezain; and Mufid Abdulqader. Two other men named in the indictment remain fugitives.

The charges include supporting a foreign terrorist group, money laundering, conspiracy and filing false tax returns.

Although the FBI investigated the men and the charity in the 1990s, the Bush administration raised the profile of the case since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. President George W. Bush announced the seizure of the charity's assets in a Rose Garden news conference three months later, in December 2001.

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According to the indictment, Holy Land raised more than $57 million (€41.36 million) from 1992 to 2001 and sent about $36 million (€26.12 million) to individuals and groups tied to Hamas, including $12.4 million (€9 million) after President Bill Clinton designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1995, which made contact with the group illegal.

Elashi is in federal prison near Dallas on other convictions, including financial dealings with a top Hamas official. Baker, Odeh, El-Mezain and Abdulqader have been free while preparing for the trial, according to a prosecution spokeswoman.

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