Ex-treasurer of Muslim charity sentenced to prison
Group allegedly promoted jihad
WORCESTER - A 43-year-old Shrewsbury software engineer was sentenced yesterday to 11 months in federal prison for concealing the nature of a tax-exempt charity that allegedly published newsletters promoting jihad and supporting Islamic militants overseas.
Muhamed Mubayyid, the former treasurer of Massachusetts Care International Inc., a defunct Boston-based charity, will get credit for his six months served at a facility in Rhode Island.
US District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV also ordered Mubayyid to pay a $1,000 fine and serve three years of supervised release.
Mubayyid's lawyer, Michael C. Andrews, said after the sentencing that the prosecutions of Mubayyid and two other leaders of the group were "ill-conceived and born, in part, out of fear of Muslim organizations" after the Sept. 11 attacks. He said Mubayyid was innocent and will appeal.
Reading a statement in court, Mubayyid, an Australian citizen of Lebanese descent, said his family raised him to help people less fortunate than himself. That is what Care International did when it solicited donations on behalf of Muslim widows and orphans and victims of strife around the world, he said.
"It was not meant to increase the number of orphans and widows," he said, denying allegations by US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan's prosecutors that the solicitations also promoted terrorism.
Mubayyid was convicted of five charges for failing to disclose in the group's 2000 tax return that Care International had published newsletters from 1993 to 1997 promoting jihad.
Prosecutors said that if the government had known of the group's activities, it probably would have denied or revoked Care International's tax-exempt status. Prosecutors also said the fraud on the IRS deprived the government of more than $330,000 in tax revenue, roughly a third of the money donated to the group from 1997 to 2003.
Saylor said prosecutors hadn't proved a specific tax loss, but he agreed that the government had been defrauded.
"It's a crime to give false information," he said. "One simply cannot file false documents with the IRS without punishment."
He said, however, that Care International had performed much legitimate charitable work.
Assistant US Attorney Aloke Chakravarty said Mubayyid, as treasurer of the group, abused tax laws designed to promote charity and "perverted" them through solicitations that encouraged terrorism and killing.
Emadeddin Muntasser, 44, of Braintree, the founder of the charity, was sentenced Thursday to one year in prison in the case. Samir Al-Monla, 51, of Brookline was acquitted by the judge of all charges last month.
The three men were not charged with financing terrorist groups, but with failing to tell the IRS how Care International used some of its tax-exempt donations.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com
