In its second major move in a month to stem the flow of money to the militant group Hamas, the US Justice Department on Friday announced the indictments of two US men and a third in the Middle East who officials said worked for years to finance Hamas' attacks against Israel.
The two Americans -- Muhammad Hamid Khalil Salah, 51, of Chicago and Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar, 46, of Washington D.C. -- were arrested on Thursday. Officials accused them of helping to lead Hamas' US recruitment and funding efforts for the past 15 years. Also indicted was US-educated Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, 53, a top Hamas political leader believed to be in Syria.
The three were indicted on charges including racketeering, conspiracy, and providing support to terrorists. They could receive life in prison if found guilty. The Justice Department is seeking to have them forfeit $2.7 million and other assets as compensation for the money that prosecutors say was illegally funneled to Hamas to finance attacks in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel.
The men's lawyers vowed to fight the charges as politically motivated. Thomas Durkin, a lawyer for Ashqar, said the indictment amounted to a "political cheap shot" against the defendants and Hamas, which maintains a vocal political wing and has strong support in many parts of the Arab world.
"This is a blatant attempt by the Bush-Ashcroft Justice Department to cater to the Jewish vote, and it's a foolish attempt to criminalize one side of an international political issue that no US administration has had the courage to resolve," Durkin said.
He and other defense lawyers in the case noted that many of the specific fund-raising and recruitment allegations against the three men date back to the early 1990s, before it was illegal for Americans to support Hamas.
The move is part of a Bush administration effort to cut off the supply of American money to militant groups like Hamas, which the US designated a terrorist group in 1995. The indictments follow the Aug. 27 arrests of five former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation in Texas, once the biggest US Islamic charity, on charges that they funneled millions of dollars to Hamas. The former charity leaders have denied the charges.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said Marzook, Salah and Ashqar were part of a cell that "allegedly financed the activities of a terrorist organization that was murdering innocent victims abroad, including American citizens."
Federal officials had already brought criminal contempt charges against Ashqar last year because of his refusal to testify before a grand jury in Chicago investigating the case.
"The fact that this indictment was brought was not a surprise," Durkin said, "but the breadth and scope of it is startling. It's just preposterous to allege Hamas to be a criminal enterprise since its inception in 1988."
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