Another Terrorist Case Bites the Dust
October 22, 2007
Mistrial in Muslim Charity Case, but Retrial Is Expected
By LESLIE EATON
DALLAS, Oct. 22 — In a major setback for the government, a judge declared a mistrial today in the case of several former leaders of a Muslim charity who were charged with financing Middle Eastern terrorists, after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
The decision came during a morning of confusion for jurors and those on both sides of the case, in which federal prosecutors were trying to show that the charity, based in a Dallas suburb, was not simply trying to help poor Palestinians, as officials said, but was in fact an arm of the radical Islamic group Hamas.
. . . The judge had announced that Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development fund-raiser Mufid Abdulqader was acquitted on all counts, and two co-defendants — Mohammed El-Mezain, former chairman of the group, and, Abdulrahman Odeh, the group’s New Jersey representative — were acquitted on most counts, according to The Associated Press. . . . …