DALLAS (Reuters) – A federal jury in Dallas on Monday found an Islamic charity and five men linked to it guilty on all charges in a lengthy case linked to the funneling of over $12 million to the Palestinian group Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist organization.
The verdict, delivered on the eighth day of deliberations, capped a grueling process that included a messy mistrial last year on most of the charges that led to the retrial, underscoring the difficulty of securing convictions in such cases.
The Holy Land Foundation was one of the biggest Islamic charities in the United States before its closure late in 2001 and said then that it focused on disaster relief and aid to Palestinian refugees.
Prosecutors said money was funneled to the militant group Hamas, which seized Gaza last year after routing the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and is pushing for an independent Palestinian state.
“Today’s verdicts are important milestones in America’s efforts against financiers of terrorism,” Patrick Rowan, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in a statement.