A federal jury yesterday convicted three former leaders of a defunct Boston-based charity of lying to win tax-exempt status and then using the organization to promote jihad and support Islamic militants overseas.
In what is believed to be the first criminal trial in US District Court in Boston that explored any US charity's ties to terrorist groups, three men were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States and of a scheme to conceal the true origins of the nonprofit charity, Massachusetts Care International Inc., which operated from 1993 to 2003 and collected $1.7 million in donations.
Convicted were Emadeddin Muntasser, 43, of Braintree, who owns Logan Furniture Co.; Muhamed Mubayyid, 42, of Shrewsbury; and Samir Al-Monla, 50, of Brookline.
"This prosecution serves notice that we will not tolerate the use of charities as a means of promoting terrorism," said Kenneth L. Wainstein, assistant US attorney general for national security, in a statement released after the convictions.
He called the verdict a milestone in the government's efforts "against those who conceal their support for extremist causes behind the veil of humanitarianism."
Prosecutors said the men could face up to three or four years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
The three men were not charged with financing terrorist groups but rather with failing to tell the Internal Revenue Service that Care International used some of its tax-exempt donations to publish a newsletter and other writings in favor of jihad, or holy war, and the mujahideen, Muslim holy warriors.
Muntasser, who served as Care International's president from 1993 to 1996, also was convicted of lying to the FBI in 2003 when he denied traveling to Afghanistan in 1994 and 1995. Later, he admitted he had been there at that time and met with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahideen warlord. Mubayyid, who served as Care's treasurer from 1997 to 2003, was convicted of filing false tax returns for several years. Monla served as president of Care from 1996 to 1998.
Defense lawyers presented evidence that, in addition to producing the written materials, Care International sent money to Muslim widows and orphans and victims of disasters worldwide.
They urged jurors not to be swayed by any unpopular political views espoused by their clients, and also raised questions about jury bias shortly before yesterday's verdict, citing a question one juror sent to the judge during deliberations.
The juror's note asked whether he could consider the "emotional impact" that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had on society when deciding whether to convict the defendants. He was told he could not.
US District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, who had forbidden any references to the Sept. 11 attacks or to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden during the trial, questioned at least one juror yesterday morning privately in his chambers. He concluded there was no bias and allowed the jury to resume deliberations.
"There's no question we are going to appeal this case," Boston attorney Norman Zalkind, who represents Muntasser, said after the verdict. "We're concerned with juror bias on that question."
In a telephone interview last night, Jean Ngarambe, of Salem, the juror who wrote the note, said he didn't have any bias as a result of Sept. 11, 2001, but was trying to determine whether he could consider the emotional impact on Muntasser, who was born in Libya and is a Muslim. He said he believed Muntasser's contention that he lied to the FBI in 2003 about his earlier travel to Afghanistan because in the post-9/11 world, he feared that he might be sent to the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
"He had a good reason to lie," said Ngarambe, who added that he would have acquitted Muntasser of lying if the judge had allowed them to consider his motivation and emotional state.
"I am satisfied about the verdict, but for Muntasser I am sorry about that," said Ngarambe. He said Muntasser had withdrawn from the conspiracy in 1996 when he quit his job at Care International and wouldn't have been convicted at all, if not for lying to the FBI in 2003. "But on the other hand the crime is there. They defrauded the IRS."
Muntasser's mother, who cried quietly after her son was led away, told reporters, "He doesn't deserve it. He never caused a problem for anybody."
Mubayyid's attorney, Michael C. Andrews, said, "Muhamed, his family and I all are very disappointed by the verdict. We will continue to litigate this case and are confident that he will be vindicated and his good name restored."
The judge ordered all three men, who had been free on bail, taken into custody following the verdict after a prosecutor argued they were likely to flee. However, Saylor agreed to reconsider bail for the three men at a hearing next Friday. The judge said he'll sentence Mubayyid on April 2, Muntasser on April 3, and Monla on April 4.
Mubayyid is a Lebanese national. Muntasser immigrated to the United States at 16. Monla, who was born in Kuwait and has dual citizenship in the United States and Lebanon, was acquitted of making a false statement to the FBI in 2003.
Jurors, who deliberated nearly 60 hours over nine days, found the three men concealed that Care International was an outgrowth of the Boston branch of the Al Kifah Refugee Center, which was disbanded after members of the Al Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., were linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York.
US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said the convictions "should be a warning to organizations or persons who intend to fund their support of any militant organization or goal, including the mujahideen and jihad, by abusing our nation's tax laws, that they will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
