Verdict in Holy Land Charity Case Will Be Read Monday
DALLAS — Jurors who deliberated 19 days reached a verdict yesterday in the trial of former leaders of a Muslim charity accused of funneling millions of dollars in illegal aid to Middle Eastern terrorists, but the decision will not be unsealed until Monday.
The defendants faced up to 35 counts each, and it is possible that jurors were unable to decide on some or all of the counts.
Federal District Judge A. Joe Fish, who presided over the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development case, was out of town at a judicial conference, and the magistrate who took the jury's verdict said he was not legally empowered to read it.
The eight-woman, four-man jury showed little emotion as they walked into the courtroom to deliver their decision. One juror smiled, and others looked tired.
They seemed to avoid eye contact with both the defendants and the prosecutors, except when lawyers for each side spoke during the brief proceeding.
Magistrate Paul Stickney took the verdict and handed it to a deputy to be sealed.
"Nobody, including myself, will even glance at it," he said.
Judge Stickney ordered the jurors not to discuss the case with anyone before Monday, and he ordered all parties in the case not to contact jurors.
Lawyers for each side and one of the five former Holy Land leaders on trial all declined comment as they left the courtroom. The defendants could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
Holy Land was the nation's largest Muslim charity before federal authorities shut it down in December 2001.
Jurors heard two months of testimony, mostly from FBI and Israeli agents who described thousands of pages of documents and hours of videotapes seized from Holy Land, from former associates of the group, and from Palestinian Arab charities that got money from Holy Land.
Prosecutors said the Texas-based group funneled $12.4 million to the Palestinian Arab group Hamas after January 1995, when the American government declared Hamas a terrorist group, making such aid illegal.
Holy Land and the five former leaders were charged with aiding a terrorist group, conspiracy and money laundering.
Lawyers for Holy Land said it was a legitimate charity that helped Muslim children and families left homeless or poor by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
About a dozen family members and friends of the defendants were in the courtroom yesterday for the verdict. Before the jury entered the room, a defendant, Shukri Abu Baker, comforted a young girl, telling her, "Be strong."
