Charity guilty in terrorism financing

Some cried after the guilty verdicts were announced yesterday at the Earle Cabell Federal Building in Dallas. (Jim Mahoney/The Dallas Morning News/Associated Press)

DALLAS - A Muslim charity and five of its former leaders were convicted Monday of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, finally handing the government a signature victory in its fight against terrorism funding.

US District Judge Jorge A. Solis announced the guilty verdicts on all 108 counts on the eighth day of deliberations in the retrial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the nation's largest Muslim charity. It was the biggest terrorism financing case since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The convictions follow the collapse of Holy Land's first trial and defeats in other cases the government tried to build.

Ghassan Elashi, Holy Land's former chairman, and Shukri Abu-Baker, chief executive, were convicted of a combined 69 counts, including supporting a terrorist, money laundering, and tax fraud.

Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh were convicted of three counts of conspiracy, and Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted of one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organization. Holy Land itself was convicted of all 32 counts.

ASSOCIATED PRESS