The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
October 26, 2012

Supreme Court to Rule on Appeal by Holy Land Five 
--------------------------------------------------


 
The Supreme Court is set to decide today on whether to hear a challenge
to the conviction of five former top officials with the Holy Land
Foundation, once the nation’s largest Muslim charities. The five were
convicted on charges of backing the Palestinian group Hamas, though they
were never accused of supporting violence, instead for funding charities
that aided Palestinians in need. On Thursday, supporters of the Holy
Land Five rallied outside a federal building in Manhattan. Michael
Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights said Holy Land had given
money to groups also funded by the U.S. State Department.

Michael Ratner: "The foundation gave charity to zakat committees in
Palestine — charitable committees. Those committees were given aid
by our government, by [U.S.] AID."

The government’s case relied on Israeli intelligence, as well as
disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over
a span of 15 years. The first trial ended in a hung jury, but
prosecutors obtained convictions in a retrial the following year.

 

.