October 22, 2007
Holy Land Foundation trial verdict
The jury has been sent back for further deliberations in the Holy Land Foundation trial:
DALLAS (AP) - Three ex-leaders of the once-biggest Muslim charity in the nation are acquitted on most charges of financing Middle Eastern terrorists. But the trial judge ordered jurors to resume deliberations after some of them said the verdicts were not unanimous.The confusion came as a federal judge expected to read the verdicts in the trial of five former leaders of the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. They and the foundation are accused of using the now-defunct foundation to funnel millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The initial verdicts acquitted former fundraiser Mufid Abdulqaderof all counts. The verdicts acquitted former chairman Mohammed El-Mezain and the foundation's New Jersey representative, Abdulrahman Odeh of most counts, but there were some counts against them and others on which no verdicts were returned