Ghassan Elashi

Ghassan Elashi was a technology businessman who was convicted of financing terrorism. At the time he was a vice president of the Richardson, Texas, internet company InfoCom Corporation.

Holy Land foundation

He was a founder of the charitable group Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. In a second trial that concluded in November, 2008 (the first had ended in a mistrial), Elashi was convicted of terrorism financing crimes related to financial dealings with the Palestinian group, Hamas. He and his co-defendants contended that the Holy Land Foundation funded only legitimate humanitarian projects in Palestinian territories.[1]

In 2002, Elashi was indicted, along with Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook; a senior member of Hamas, for directing funds toward the group that the U.S. Department of State designated as a terrorist organization.[2] InfoCom shared personnel, office space, and board members with the Holy Land Foundation and both received investments from Hamas leader Marzook.[3]

Elashi was arrested in December 2002 and charged with conspiracy, money laundering, and dealing in the property of a designated terrorist. The government later allowed the case against Elashi and his codefendants to be split into two cases.

Conviction

In 2004, Elashi and two of his brothers were convicted for illegally shipping computer technology to Syria and Libya, while they were U.S. State Department-designated state sponsors of terrorism.[4] On October 13, 2006, Elashi was sentenced to seven years in prison.[4] The second case ended in a mistrial in 2007,[5] but Elashi and his codefendants were convicted after a retrial in November 2008. In 2009, Elashi was sentenced to 65 years in prison on federal charges of funneling 12 million dollars to Hamas.[6]

Elashi was originally housed at Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville, to allow the convicted men to stay in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex so the convicts could aid their lawyers with their appeals. On April 20, 2010, U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis ended the requirement, facilitating their move to more secure facilities. In addition the men were required to speak English when talking with outsiders. Elashi was moved to a more secure prison in Illinois.[7] Elashi, Federal Bureau of Prisons #29687-177, is serving his sentence at United States Penitentiary, Marion.[8]

The non-governmental organization Charity & Security Network has charged that the convictions send a "chilling message" to US NGOs,[9] in part because they are uncertain how to determine which charities are acceptable. One indication of that uncertainty, the group states, is that the charitable committees that Holy Land was convicted of working with were never "placed on the U.S. government's list of organizations supporting terrorism."[9]

In 2018, Activist Miko Peled published this book, Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five, where he catalogs the trial of the criminalization and dismantling of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, leading to the arrest and jailing of Foundation Elashi, President Shukri Abu Baker, Mohammad el-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulraham Odeh. According to Peled, "American justice [ ] can convict a hundred innocents for one who is guilty".[10]

References
  1. "Five Convicted in Terrorism Financing Trial". The New York Times. November 24, 2008.
  2. "Senior Leader of Hamas and Texas Computer Company Indicted for Conspiracy to Violate U.S. Ban on Financial Dealings with Terrorists" (Press release). United States Department of Justice. 2002-12-18. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  3. Matthew A. Levitt (2002-08-01). "Hearing on "The Role of Charities and NGOs in the Financing of Terrorist Activities."". Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Retrieved 2008-11-24. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. INFOCOM CORPORATION AND ITS OPERATORS SENTENCED IN FEDERAL COURT U.S. Department of Justice, October 13, 2006 Archived February 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Mistrial in Holy Land Foundation trial".
  6. "Holy Land founders get life sentences." JTA. 28 May 2009. 28 May 2009.
  7. Trahan, Jason. "4 convicted in Holy Land Foundation case moved from Dallas area to special federal prisons." The Dallas Morning News. Saturday May 1, 2010. Retrieved on May 21, 2010.
  8. "Ghassan Elashi." Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on May 21, 2010.
  9. "Heavy Sentences Handed out in Holy Land Trial Send Chilling Message to U.S. NGOs - Charity & Security Network".
  10. THE UNJUST PROSECUTION OF THE HOLY LAND FOUNDATION FIVE
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