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Associated Press - December 28, 2007
$156M terrorism damage award thrown out
By JOHN O'CONNOR
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A federal appeals court overturned a $156 million award Friday against U.S.-based Muslim activists for their involvement in the terrorist death of an American teenager in the West Bank more than a decade ago.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the judge in the case had failed to require the parents of 17-year-old David Boim to properly show a link between the boy's death and the fundraising activities of the charities.
Because of that error, it sent the case back for a possible new trial.
Nathan Lewin, an attorney for the parents, Stanley and Joyce Boim, said an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is possible.
"This court of appeals decision is wrong, very wrong," Lewin said. "It amounts to encouragement of financial contributions to terrorist organizations."
The Boims had sued the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development; the American Muslim Society, also known as the Islamic Association for Palestine; the Quranic Literacy Institute of suburban Oak Lawn; and an alleged Hamas fundraiser.
Their son, a yeshiva student, was gunned down in 1996 while waiting with other students at a bus stop in Beit El, on the West Bank.
In the 2004 trial, a federal court jury had set damages at $52 million. A U.S. magistrate tripled the amount in accord with U.S. anti-terrorism law. It was the first in which jurors awarded damages from U.S.-based charities accused of bankrolling Hamas, Boim attorney Nathan Lewin said at the time.
The couple, who had moved to Jerusalem in 1985, filed the suit under a federal law permitting American victims of terrorism overseas to seek damages against organizations that raise funds for terrorists in the U.S.
The alleged Hamas fundraiser cited in the suit, Muhammad Salah, was convicted of obstruction of justice for lying under oath on a questionnaire stemming from the Boims' lawsuit. The jury, however, acquitted Salah of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at bankrolling Hamas. He was sentenced in July to 21 months in federal prison.....
The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) today welcomed a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to overturn a controversial award judgment against American Muslim charities in an Illinois civil suit.
In a statement, CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab said:
“Today, our nation’s great tradition of respect for the rule of law has been upheld. This landmark ruling is a strong rejection of the recent disturbing trend of political lawsuits against American Muslims who have committed no crime other than providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
“Pro-Israel groups are engaged in a broad-based attack against domestic humanitarian efforts to aid Palestinians living in dire circumstances under the Israeli occupation. It is reprehensible that groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) would fund and encourage lawsuits that seek to repress First Amendment-protected activities by Palestinian Americans under the guise of fighting terrorism.
“The defendants in this case have endured a seven-year legal battle in which their reputations have been smeared and their assets confiscated. While the destruction of American Muslim groups who have committed no wrong-doing is irreparable, today’s decision, in which the rules of law were finally applied, helps restore the American people’s trust in the system.
“CAIR deplores the murder of David Boim and hopes that the actual wrong-doers are brought to justice.”
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