Source: The Detroit News
Wire Service: AP
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MUSLIM_CHARITY_TRIAL?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Weighing two months of testimony, a jury is attempting to determine whether a Texas-based Muslim charity helped needy people or Middle East terrorists.
Federal prosecutors accuse the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development of using charity as a cover to funnel millions in illegal aid to groups controlled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The U.S. government designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1995, making it a crime to support it.
Defense attorneys say Holy Land, the largest Muslim charity in the country until federal agents shut it down in December 2001, only provided help to desperately poor children and families, many of them living in refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank.
Prosecutors argue that documents and videotapes reveal a secret plan by five former Holy Land leaders to bankroll social services that helped Hamas gain support from Palestinian civilians and recruit suicide bombers.