Holy Land Foundation Verdict: Guilty on All Counts
After the first disaster of a trial, this news comes as a pleasant surprise: Holy Land Foundation defendants guilty on all counts.
A jury on Monday sided with the prosecution in the Holy Land Foundation trial, determining unanimously on more than two dozen counts that the defendants were guilty of charges related to the financing of the terrorist group Hamas.
The verdicts were read Monday afternoon.
Members of the formerly Richardson-based Holy Land are accused of funneling $12 million to Hamas after the Palestinian group had been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1995.
It took the jury eight days of deliberations to reach its decisions – less than half the time it took jurors to deadlock end up with an almost complete mistrial last year on the first go-around.
Opening statements at the Earle Cabell Federal Courthouse in downtown Dallas began Sept. 22. Over the past two months, prosecutors attempted to prove that five former charity organizers used Holy Land, once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., to funnel an estimated $60 million to the militant group – most of it before 1995.
Frank says: