Holy Land/CAIR Founder Sentenced
Charles Johnson
Fri Oct 13, 2006 at 3:23 pm PDT • Views: 473
This Dallas Morning News article doesn’t mention it, but in addition to his ties to the Holy Land Foundation, Ghassan Elashi was also the founder of the Texas chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations: Holy Land group’s co-founder sentenced. (Hat tip: LC LaWedgie.)
Ghassan Elashi, co-founder and former chairman of the now-defunct Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation, was sentenced Thursday to six years and eight months in prison on charges that he did business with a terrorist and violated export laws with his brothers and their company InfoCom Corp.
Mr. Elashi was allowed by U.S. district Judge Sam Lindsay to remain free through at least January to prepare for a trial involving the Holy Land Foundation, scheduled to begin in February.
Thursday’s sentence came nearly 24 hours after his brother Bayan Elashi, former chief executive officer of InfoCom, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Mr. Elashi and his four brothers were found guilty in July 2004 of violating U.S. export laws by illegally shipping computers to Libya and Syria, considered state sponsors of terrorism at the time.
He and two of the brothers were also convicted in April 2005 of conspiring to launder money with Mousa Abu Marzook, a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Mr. Elashi’s attorney argued at trial that the money was part of legitimate business with a cousin who is Mr. Marzook’s wife.
Frank says: