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July 11, 2007
Salah sentenced for lying in civil suit
CHICAGO, JULY 11, 2007 - A Chicago businessman, Muhammad Salah, accused by the government of providing money to Hamas extremists was sentenced today to 21 months in federal prison for lying under oath in a civil lawsuit.
He was also fined $25,000 by U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
Salah, who was acquitted in February of terrorism charges, was convicted of obstruction of justice, a lesser offense. “If they're going to start prosecuting people for filing false interrogatories, there's going to be hundreds of parties and lawyers brought before the bar,” said defense attorney Michael Deutsch.
“It's a sad day for the Muslim community,” said Christina Abraham of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “
Salah originally faced life in prison, but was acquitted of charges tying him to the Palestinian extremist group Hamas.
“Scooter Libby just got prosecuted for five counts of obstruction of justice and he walked. Alberto Gonzalez should be investigated for obstruction of justice,” said Salah family friend Laura Alkhawam. “Don't prosecute people who are good and serve their communities.”
Salah's supporters sent the judge 640 letters asking for leniency and describing the defendant as a family man, a teacher and a mentor.
When the indictment originally was announced, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft called it a major step in the war on terrorism, saying said Salah and co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar operated "a U.S.-based terrorist recruiting and financing cell."
Prosecutors charged Salah and two co-defendants in 2004 with being top leaders in the Palestinian extremist group Hamas and engaging in a long-running conspiracy to funnel millions of dollars to support Mideast terrorism. Salah was arrested in Israel in 1993 and spent nearly five years in prison there on similar charges.
The indictment also charged that Salah lied under oath in written answers he gave in a civil suit filed by the family of David Boim, an American student killed in a Hamas shooting. In 2004, a federal jury awarded Boim's parents $156 million after finding that Salah provided support to Hamas.
But a jury on Feb. 1, 2007 acquitted Salah and Ashqar of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at bankrolling the extremist group Hamas.
The same jury, however, did convict Salah of a single count of obstruction of justice for lying under oath on a written questionnaire involving the shooting death in Israel of an American teenager, David Boim. The Boim family had sued Salah and a number of Islamic charities, claiming that they had funneled money to Hamas.
The jury convicted Ashqar, a former business professor, of refusing to testify before a federal grand jury after he had been granted immunity from prosecution. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Prosecutors had asked St. Eve to sentence Salah to 10 years; Deutsch had asked for probation.
St. Eve imposed the minimum sentence under advisory federal sentencing guidelines, which called for a term of 21 to 27 months in prison. Salah could have gotten a life sentence if convicted of racketeering.
Salah served a 4 1/2-year prison sentence in Israel for aiding Hamas and returned to the United States after he was released in 1997.
While in prison, he confessed to aiding Hamas. He now claims he was tortured into making the statements by tough Israeli interrogators.
Much of the racketeering conspiracy count against Salah involved the same alleged wrongdoing for which he was jailed in Israel. The double jeopardy rule against trying a defendant twice on the same charge did not apply in Salah's case because his conviction was in a foreign court.
The star witnesses against him at his trial in Chicago were members of the Israeli security service, who testified under aliases in a cleared courtroom out of concern about possible reprisals by Hamas sympathizers.
After delivering their verdict, jurors refused to discuss why they decided to acquit Salah and Ashqar of racketeering.
But St. Eve told the court that she had spoken with the jurors and they believed the testimony of the Israeli security agents. But she said the jurors also believed that Salah had withdrawn from the conspiracy.
The community viewed Salah as "a trustworthy person caught in a political drama at a time when it's difficult to be a Palestinian or a Muslim," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago. "The feeling is this could happen to anyone."
The Salah matter has resounded like no other local court case, Rehab said. It compares to the case of Sami Al-Arian, a Florida professor whose terrorism trial ended in a hung jury on many counts, but who later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was ordered deported from the U.S…..
Despite the prison term, the Salah case can't be called a win for the government, said Steven A. Miller, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago. "They charged someone with being a terrorist," Miller said. "The disparity between the accusation and the outcome is self-evident." (CBS2 & Chicago Tribune)
He was also fined $25,000 by U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
Salah, who was acquitted in February of terrorism charges, was convicted of obstruction of justice, a lesser offense. “If they're going to start prosecuting people for filing false interrogatories, there's going to be hundreds of parties and lawyers brought before the bar,” said defense attorney Michael Deutsch.
“It's a sad day for the Muslim community,” said Christina Abraham of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “
Salah originally faced life in prison, but was acquitted of charges tying him to the Palestinian extremist group Hamas.
“Scooter Libby just got prosecuted for five counts of obstruction of justice and he walked. Alberto Gonzalez should be investigated for obstruction of justice,” said Salah family friend Laura Alkhawam. “Don't prosecute people who are good and serve their communities.”
Salah's supporters sent the judge 640 letters asking for leniency and describing the defendant as a family man, a teacher and a mentor.
When the indictment originally was announced, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft called it a major step in the war on terrorism, saying said Salah and co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar operated "a U.S.-based terrorist recruiting and financing cell."
Prosecutors charged Salah and two co-defendants in 2004 with being top leaders in the Palestinian extremist group Hamas and engaging in a long-running conspiracy to funnel millions of dollars to support Mideast terrorism. Salah was arrested in Israel in 1993 and spent nearly five years in prison there on similar charges.
The indictment also charged that Salah lied under oath in written answers he gave in a civil suit filed by the family of David Boim, an American student killed in a Hamas shooting. In 2004, a federal jury awarded Boim's parents $156 million after finding that Salah provided support to Hamas.
But a jury on Feb. 1, 2007 acquitted Salah and Ashqar of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at bankrolling the extremist group Hamas.
The same jury, however, did convict Salah of a single count of obstruction of justice for lying under oath on a written questionnaire involving the shooting death in Israel of an American teenager, David Boim. The Boim family had sued Salah and a number of Islamic charities, claiming that they had funneled money to Hamas.
The jury convicted Ashqar, a former business professor, of refusing to testify before a federal grand jury after he had been granted immunity from prosecution. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Prosecutors had asked St. Eve to sentence Salah to 10 years; Deutsch had asked for probation.
St. Eve imposed the minimum sentence under advisory federal sentencing guidelines, which called for a term of 21 to 27 months in prison. Salah could have gotten a life sentence if convicted of racketeering.
Salah served a 4 1/2-year prison sentence in Israel for aiding Hamas and returned to the United States after he was released in 1997.
While in prison, he confessed to aiding Hamas. He now claims he was tortured into making the statements by tough Israeli interrogators.
Much of the racketeering conspiracy count against Salah involved the same alleged wrongdoing for which he was jailed in Israel. The double jeopardy rule against trying a defendant twice on the same charge did not apply in Salah's case because his conviction was in a foreign court.
The star witnesses against him at his trial in Chicago were members of the Israeli security service, who testified under aliases in a cleared courtroom out of concern about possible reprisals by Hamas sympathizers.
After delivering their verdict, jurors refused to discuss why they decided to acquit Salah and Ashqar of racketeering.
But St. Eve told the court that she had spoken with the jurors and they believed the testimony of the Israeli security agents. But she said the jurors also believed that Salah had withdrawn from the conspiracy.
The community viewed Salah as "a trustworthy person caught in a political drama at a time when it's difficult to be a Palestinian or a Muslim," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago. "The feeling is this could happen to anyone."
The Salah matter has resounded like no other local court case, Rehab said. It compares to the case of Sami Al-Arian, a Florida professor whose terrorism trial ended in a hung jury on many counts, but who later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was ordered deported from the U.S…..
Despite the prison term, the Salah case can't be called a win for the government, said Steven A. Miller, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago. "They charged someone with being a terrorist," Miller said. "The disparity between the accusation and the outcome is self-evident." (CBS2 & Chicago Tribune)
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