Date: 28 / 05 / 2009 Time: 11:28 | |
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| Khalid Mash'al / Musa Abu Marzouk [Ma'anImages] |
Among the defendants in the Holy Land Foundation case was Mufid Abdulqader, 49, the half brother of exiled Hamas leader Khalid Mash’al. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aiding the group that the US deems a “terrorist” organization.
Mohammad El-Mezain, 55, a relative of Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouq, was also sentenced to prison in what is being called the largest terrorism financing case in US history. Shukri Abu Baker, 50, and Ghassan Elashi, 55, two founding members of the Texas-based foundation, were sentenced to 65 years in prison.
Three of the defendants maintained their innocence, saying that the foundation was dedicated exclusively to aiding needy Palestinians. "We gave the essentials of life – oil, rice, flour," said former Holy Land board chairman Ghassan Elashi before receiving his sentence, according to The Dallas Morning News.
"The [Israeli] occupation was providing them with death and destruction. The Holy Land Foundation was to assist the Palestinians in their steadfastness against the brutal apartheid regime," he added, according to the newspaper. "I would like to declare my innocence of all the charges."
"Your function in life was raising money to support Hamas," US District Judge Jorge Solis told one of the men while reading out his sentence.
