Trial Begins for 2 Charged With Aiding Terror Group
October 20, 2006 Trial Begins for 2 Charged With Aiding Terror Group By LIBBY SANDER CHICAGO, Oct. 19 - Muhammad Salah spent four and a half years in an Israeli prison in the mid-1990's after admitting that he had provided money and other aid to the Palestinian organization Hamas for use in attacks against Israel. Now, nearly a decade after Mr. Salah's release, his lawyers are trying to convince a federal jury here that the confession, on which a federal racketeering case against him is based, was obtained through torture. "What they want you to do is buy into Israeli torture," Mr. Salah's lawyer, Michael E. Deutsch, told jurors on Thursday in the trial's opening statements. "You don't have to accept a case based on torture." Mr. Salah, 53, a former grocer from suburban Chicago who now drives vans that transport dialysis patients for treatments, and his co-defendant, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48, a former university professor from suburban Washington, are charged with supplying financial support to Hamas's military leaders. Prosecutors say they have evidence that the two men used United States bank accounts to funnel money to the group. The indictment was announced in 2004 with much fanfare by the attorney general at the time, John D. Ashcroft, as part of the federal government's response to terrorism. Carrie E. Hamilton, an assistant United States attorney, told jurors in a packed courtroom that during the trial, which is expected to last three to four months, the government would show how Mr. Salah and Dr. Ashqar channeled money to Hamas's military leaders during the early 1990's. Because of their financial support for Hamas, Ms. Hamilton said, the two men were responsible for the group's violent tactics against Israel. "They're on the outside," she said, "helping people on the inside with Hamas's terror." Mr. Salah, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp on the West Bank and later became a United States citizen, has maintained that his involvement with Hamas was for humanitarian reasons only. When he was arrested in Israel in 1993, the organization, which was founded in 1987, existed mainly to provide social services to impoverished Palestinians, his lawyer, Mr. Deutsch, told the jury. The United States government did not label Hamas a terrorist organization until 1997, he said. A "giving person" driven by a commitment to his Palestinian roots, Mr. Salah felt strongly about providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians, Mr. Deutsch said. And as a United States citizen, it was easy for him to travel to Israel and the occupied territories. All financial transactions related to Mr. Salah's dealings with Hamas were done openly in his name and in his own checking account, he said. Mr. Salah was arrested at an Israeli checkpoint in the Gaza Strip in 1993, where the police found $97,000 in his hotel room in Jerusalem. He later confessed to meeting with Hamas military leaders and giving them money, but defense lawyers said the confession was false and obtained only after Israeli secret police tortured Mr. Salah for more than 50 days. "This is the Israeli secret police," Mr. Deutsch told jurors. "They are notorious throughout the world for getting information through coercion and torture." Prosecutors, however, pointed to Mr. Salah's confession as evidence that he was plugged into the highest levels of Hamas's military organization, and Ms. Hamilton spoke of a different kind of interrogation. She called accusations of torture "outrageous" and said that a former New York Times reporter, Judith Miller, who witnessed part of Mr. Salah's interrogation, would testify that she did not see any mistreatment. Two Israeli security agents, disguised and using aliases, are also expected to testify for the government in a courtroom cleared of public spectators. Prosecutors said Dr. Ashqar, like Mr. Salah, was also part of an extended United States network that supported Hamas. Federal agents found a "treasure trove" of Hamas-related documents and minutes of high-level Hamas meetings in Dr. Ashqar's home in Oxford, Miss., Ms. Hamilton said. Wiretaps of Dr. Ashqar's telephones revealed that he was aware of Hamas's violent tactics and that he gave money and support to the family of a suicide bomber, she said. Dr. Ashqar's lawyer, William Moffitt, portrayed his client, who came to the United States on an academic fellowship, as an intellectual who kept current on Palestinian issues. Enjoying the free speech afforded to him in this country, he met openly with others concerned about Palestinian issues, Mr. Moffitt told jurors. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/us/20trial.html?pagewanted=print ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------- -- FAIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. 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