Judge Dismisses Suit Questioning Federal Tactics

On the eve of trial, a federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging the government’s tactics in an investigation into alleged financial links between Islamic organizations in Northern Virginia and terrorist groups abroad.In the suit, a leader of the Herndon, Va.-based International Institute of Islamic Thought, Iqbal Unus, his wife, Aysha, and their teenage daughter, Hanaa, charged that their rights were violated when their home was searched in a series of raids federal agents carried out in March 2002. The searches targeted Islamic groups and activists in suburban Washington, as well as a Georgia company that processes halal chicken, Mar-Jac Poultry Inc.The case was set for trial next week before Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Va. Both sides had filed witness lists and a flurry of pretrial motions, but at a hearing on Friday the judge granted a government motion to toss the suit out.In a brief interview yesterday, Mr. Unus confirmed that he was present at last week’s hearing, but he referred questions to his attorney, Nancy Luque.“We believe the judge incorrectly applied the law and we will appeal,” Ms. Luque told The New York Sun.A spokesman for the government lawyers defending the case, James Rybicki, declined to comment on the decision.The Unuses alleged that government agents did not immediately identify themselves during the 2002 raid, that Aysha and Hanaa, then 17, were handcuffed for four hours without justification, and that an agent trained a weapon on Hanaa.The agents who carried out the search warrant contended that they loudly identified themselves as police and that the occupants of the house failed to open the door in a timely manner. The government also asserted in a recent motion that handcuffing the mother and daughter was reasonable because the investigation was terrorism-related.A transcript of Judge Brinkema’s oral ruling was not immediately available but she appears to have concluded that there was no significant factual dispute about the measures used against the Unuses and that the procedure did not amount to assault, trespass, and false imprisonment as the family claimed.The lawsuit, when filed in 2004, also named a prominent terrorism researcher, Rita Katz, as a defendant. Judge Brinkema dismissed her from the case in 2005 and later awarded her $41,000 in legal fees.The Unuses argued that a 99-page affidavit prepared to obtain the search warrant was based on erroneous information provided by Ms. Katz to a Customs Service investigator heading up the probe, David Kane.Mr. Kane’s affidavit said the Virginia think tank, IIIT, was part of a web of more than 100 nonprofit groups and businesses known as the Safa Group, many of which had the same directors or officers. “Evidence exists that individuals associated with the Safa Group are using the various affiliated charities and companies under their control to transfer money in convoluted transactions through a network of inter-related organizations designed to prevent the United States from tracking the ultimate recipients,” the agent wrote.Mr. Kane said millions of dollars had been sent to bank secrecy havens such as the Isle of Man and that the funds appeared to be destined for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and other terrorist groups.Mr. Unus and other targeted in the raids said they had no ties to terrorism. They have argued that the funds were not transferred abroad.Like most of those targeted in the raids five years ago, the Unuses have never been charged. However, prosecutors have said there have been at least two convictions of people linked to those searches, including a prominent leader of American Muslim groups, Abdurahman Alamoudi. He is serving a 23-year prison sentence for a scheme involving an attempt by Libyan officials to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.A grand jury investigation into the Virginia Islamic charities is ongoing. Several disputes about the probe have been heard recently in secret by federal judges in Alexandria. A former Florida college professor already serving a prison term for aiding Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sami Al-Arian, refused to testify before the grand jury. His prison sentence has been on hold for nearly a year while he sits in jail for contempt.

Judge Dismisses Suit Questioning Federal Tactics

Judge Dismisses Suit Questioning Federal Tactics

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