DALLAS – In a whirlwind day of testimony, jurors in the Hamas-support trial of five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) were guided through stacks of financial records and taken inside a secretive meeting held in the U.S. with the ambition of scuttling peace in the Middle East.
The men are accused of illegally sending $12 million to Hamas through a series of Palestinian charities called zakat committees. Most of the conduct occurred before U.S. law prohibited dealing with Hamas, but it clearly established HLF's role in a covert committee created by the Muslim Brotherhood to advance the Hamas agenda in the U.S. and the flow of money from the U.S. to Hamas-tied entities.
FBI agent Lara Burns was the day's sole witness. Working with federal prosecutor Barry Jonas, the two took jurors through a series of excerpts from a secret 1993 meeting of Hamas members and supporters called in the wake of the Oslo Peace Accords.
This is the second trial in the HLF case, the first ended in a mistrial after jurors could not reach unanimous verdicts on most of the counts. Prosecutors have streamlined their presentation in response, with several changes on display Monday. Read more ...
The men are accused of illegally sending $12 million to Hamas through a series of Palestinian charities called zakat committees. Most of the conduct occurred before U.S. law prohibited dealing with Hamas, but it clearly established HLF's role in a covert committee created by the Muslim Brotherhood to advance the Hamas agenda in the U.S. and the flow of money from the U.S. to Hamas-tied entities.
FBI agent Lara Burns was the day's sole witness. Working with federal prosecutor Barry Jonas, the two took jurors through a series of excerpts from a secret 1993 meeting of Hamas members and supporters called in the wake of the Oslo Peace Accords.
This is the second trial in the HLF case, the first ended in a mistrial after jurors could not reach unanimous verdicts on most of the counts. Prosecutors have streamlined their presentation in response, with several changes on display Monday. Read more ...
Source: IPT News
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