Yee-ha! God bless the jury system! Score one for the good guys!
--- Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages at gmail.com> wrote:
>
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20071022/pl_usnw/cair__hlf_mistrial_a__stunning_defeat__for_prosecution>
> CAIR: HLF Mistrial a 'Stunning Defeat' for
> Prosecution
>
> To: RELIGION EDITORS
>
> Contact: Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications
> Director,
> +1-202-488-8787, or +1-202-744-7726,
> ihooper at cair.com, Rabiah Ahmed,
> Communications Coordinator, +1-202-488-8787, or
> +1-202-439-1441,
> rahmed at cair.com, or Amina Rubin, Communications
> Coordinator,
> +1-202-488-8787, arubin at cair.com, all of CAIR
>
> Not a single guilty verdict returned by Texas jury
> on 197 charges
>
> WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
> Council on
> American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called today's
> declaration of a
> mistrial in the case against the Texas-based Holy
> Land Foundation
> (HLF) Muslim charity a "stunning defeat" for the
> prosecution.
>
> CAIR also said the absence of a single guilty
> verdict on 197 charges
> brought by the prosecution in the terror financing
> trial will help
> reinforce the Muslim community's faith in America's
> system of justice.
>
> The jury initially brought back "not guilty"
> verdicts on the
> government's most serious charges of material
> support for terrorism
> against the five HLF officials. However, jurors were
> deadlocked on
> other charges, forcing the judge to declare the
> mistrial.
>
> SEE: Judge Declares Mistrial in Holy Land Foundation
> Case (Dallas
> Morning News)
>
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102207dnmetholyland.1878fd716.html
>
> SEE ALSO: HLF Juror Says 'There Was So Little
> Evidence' (AP)
>
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8SEFSUO0.html
>
> View the jury's verdict for one of the defendants
> at:
>
http://www.txnd.uscourts.gov/pdf/info_center/hlf_ver.pdf
>
> In a statement reacting to the declaration of a
> mistrial, CAIR Board
> Chairman Parvez Ahmed applauded the efforts of the
> jury.
>
> Ahmed's statement said in part:
>
> "After 19 days of deliberation, the jurors did not
> return even a
> single guilty verdict on any of the almost 200
> charges against these
> men, whose only 'crime' was providing food, clothing
> and shelter to
> Palestinian women and children. It seems clear that
> the majority of
> the jury agreed with many observers of the trial who
> believe the
> charges were built on fear, not facts. This is a
> stunning defeat for
> prosecutors and a victory for America's legal
> system.
>
> "The American Muslim community will continue to
> fight for justice and
> for the right to help those who are in need, whether
> in this nation or
> overseas. Today's developments in the HLF case send
> the message that a
> hard-working jury of ordinary Americans will weigh
> the facts
> objectively and will resist pressure to convict
> based on guilt by
> association. Charitable giving should be honored,
> not criminalized."
>
> Ahmed added that this is just the latest defeat for
> government
> prosecutors in such cases. Similar conspiracy
> charges brought in
> Illinois and Florida found little traction with
> jurors.
>
> CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties
> group, has 33 offices
> and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission
> is to enhance the
> understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect
> civil liberties,
> empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that
> promote justice
> and mutual understanding.
>
> CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director
> Ibrahim Hooper,
> 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
> ihooper at cair.com; CAIR
> Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed,
> 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441,
> E-Mail: rahmed at cair.com; CAIR Communications
> Coordinator Amina Rubin,
> 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin at cair.com
>
> SOURCE CAIR - Council on American-Islamic Relations
>
>
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/us/22cnd-holyland.html>
> October 22, 2007
> No Convictions in Trial Against Muslim Charity
> By LESLIE EATON
>
> DALLAS, Oct. 22 —A federal jury today failed to
> convict any of the
> former leaders of a Muslim charity who were charged
> with financing
> Middle Eastern terrorists, and the judge declared a
> mistrial on almost
> all of the charges.
>
> The case, involving the Holy Land Foundation for
> Relief and
> Development, is the government's largest and most
> complex legal effort
> to shut down what it contends is American financing
> for terrorist
> organizations in the Middle East. Even though the
> investigation began
> more than a decade ago, the trial was being closely
> watched by legal
> experts who saw it as test of anti-terrorism laws
> and tactics adopted
> by the government after the Sept. 11 attacks,
> including laws that
> allow it to freeze assets of groups it says are
> aiding terrorist
> organizations.
>
> David D. Cole, a professor of constitutional law at
> Georgetown
> University, said the jury's verdict called into
> question the
> government's tactics of using secret evidence to
> freeze a charity's
> assets. When, at trial, "they have to put their
> evidence on the table,
> they can't convict anyone of anything," he said. "It
> suggests the
> government is really pushing beyond where the law
> justifies them
> going." Prosecutors were trying to show that the
> charity, based in a
> Dallas suburb, was not simply trying to help poor
> Palestinians, as
> Holy Land officials said, but was in fact an arm of
> the radical
> Islamic group Hamas; the 36 charges included
> conspiracy, money
> laundering and providing financial support to a
> foreign terrorist
> organization.
>
> The case involved more than a decade of
> investigation, almost two
> months of testimony — including some from Israeli
> intelligence agents
> using pseudonyms — and mounds of documents, wiretap
> transcripts and
> even videotapes dug up in a backyard in Virginia.
>
> But after more than 19 days of deliberations, the
> jury acquitted one
> of the five individual defendants of all but one
> charge, on which it
> deadlocked. Most jury members also appeared ready to
> acquit two other
> defendants of most charges, and failed to reach a
> verdict on the two
> principal organizers and on the foundation itself,
> which had been the
> largest Muslim charity in the United States until
> the government froze
> its assets in late 2001.
>
> The decision today is "a stunning setback for the
> government, there's
> no other way of looking at it," said Matthew D.
> Orwig,
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