Posted on 07/27/2004 5:49:14 AM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
In fundraising probe, Palestinian activist may face more charges: Federal prosecutors indicated Monday new charges might soon be filed related to a long-running Chicago grand jury probe of fundraising for the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The disclosure came during a court hearing for Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar, a Palestinian activist from Virginia facing federal charges for refusing to testify before the grand jury despite a grant of immunity. The grand jury wanted to question Ashqar about his relationship with Hamas and its members.
Ashqar was initially indicted last year on one count of criminal contempt, and a new indictment handed up late last month added a second charge of obstruction of justice.
Although Ashqar is scheduled to stand trial on those charges in September, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Ferguson said Monday that may not be realistic because of "additional developments that are pending."
The possibility of new charges affecting Ashqar's case was discussed at a private meeting between prosecutors and defense attorneys last month, defense attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin said.
"It's possible there could be additional charges," Durkin acknowledged after a hearing Monday.
Pressed by U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve about when any new developments affecting the case could be expected, Ferguson demurred.
"The matter is with higher-ups," Ferguson said. "I wish I controlled the schedule — the higher-ups are not in Chicago."
The grand jury investigation into alleged Chicago-area links to Hamas and other militant groups began in 1998 and intensified after the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001.
So far, the only criminal charges to come of the Hamas probe have been against Ashqar and a Hazel Crest man, Sharif Alwan, who was convicted in 2000 of similar charges of criminal contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury.
But in 1998, federal prosecutors froze the bank accounts of Bridgeview resident Mohammed Salah and filed a civil lawsuit to seize $1.4 million in assets. An FBI agent investigating that case said in an affidavit that Salah — the only U.S. citizen to be designated an international terrorist by the federal government — used Oak Lawn-based Quranic Literacy Institute to launder at least $750,000 for Hamas.
The government's civil case against Salah has remained open for six years while the grand jury investigation grinds on.
In an affidavit earlier this year, a lawyer defending Salah in a different civil lawsuit said Salah is a "target" of the ongoing investigation, and that the grand jury had subpoenaed documents from him in November. A federal magistrate recently ruled Salah could assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions in the lawsuit.
That lawsuit, which also remains pending, was brought by the family of a Jewish teen killed in a terrorist attack and accuses Salah and several other groups and individuals — many with ties to the south suburbs — of forming a complex money-raising network for Hamas.
Salah was arrested by Israel's Shin Bet security service during a 1993 trip to the West Bank and accused of plotting to deliver $650,000 to Hamas. Although he allegedly confessed to Israeli authorities and spent five years in prison there, Salah has since maintained his innocence, denied ties to Hamas, and has not been charged with a crime in the United States.
The man arrested in Israel alongside Salah, Mohammed Jarad, has also not been charged with a crime in this country. Jarad, who lives in Glendale Heights and runs a grocery store on Chicago's North Side, recently told the Daily Southtown he last testified before the grand jury more than two years ago. Jarad had been represented by Durkin, but has now hired a different lawyer to avoid a possible conflict of interest in the Ashqar case.
Unable to get an answer to when, if at all, new charges will be filed that could affect the Ashqar case, Judge St. Eve said Monday the planned Sept. 20 trial date remains in effect.
"All of this is somewhat hypothetical still," St. Eve said before requesting the parties return to court for an update Aug. 11. "Maybe by then we'll have more concrete answers to some of these questions."
Must be a language thing:
Here wecall this guy an "activist" but you put the same guy in Israel, and he's called
a "Terrorist."
City Colleges fire lecturer with terror ties
Thank God for Free Republic!
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