Hamas Supporters Acquitted
Charles Johnson
Thu Feb 1, 2007 at 2:52 pm PST • Views: 156
Yet another depressing miscarriage of justice in a terrorism case, as a jury lets a confessed Hamas member and his associate walk free on charges of aiding the terror group: U.S. jury acquits two men of Hamas conspiracy.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. jury found two Palestinian-born men not guilty on Thursday of carrying out what prosecutors said was a 15-year conspiracy to illegally finance Hamas terrorist activities in Israel.
Muhammad Salah, 53, and co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48, were acquitted of racketeering conspiracy, the major charge against them and one that could have drawn a sentence of 40 years to life.
They were found guilty on lesser obstruction of justice charges, relating in Salah’s case to his statements on whether he actually belonged to Hamas and Ashqar’s refusal to answer questions from two grand juries. The obstruction charges call for up to a five-year sentence, but also allow for probation, lawyers said.
“It is better than we thought,” a tearful Salah, a businessman from the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview, Illinois, said as he left the courtroom. “We are good people, not terrorists.”
Frank says: