http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-hamastrial,1,5026048.story
By MIKE ROBINSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer
January 11, 2007, 3:17 PM CST
CHICAGO -- Jurors heard a final emotional appeal from a federal prosecutor Thursday then began deliberations at the trial of two men accused of bankrolling terrorism by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
"For too long these defendants have committed a variety of criminal violations and the time for accountability has arrived," Assistant U.S. Attorney Reid J. Schar said, concluding four days of closing arguments.
Former Chicago grocer Muhammad Salah, 53, and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48, are accused of furnishing money and recruits to Hamas -- the militant group that won recent elections in the Palestinian territories but is classified by the U.S. government as a terrorist group.
After hearing from Schar, jurors received instructions from U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve and began deliberating at 3:35 p.m.
Prosecutors told jurors during the three-month trial that the two men were major operatives within the international network raising money for Hamas.
They said the money was used to finance murders, bombings and kidnappings aimed at toppling the government of Israel.
Defense attorneys said the money represented charitable donations aimed at easing the suffering of Palestinians living in refugee camps since the birth of Israel and suffering under Israeli army occupation.
In an emotional appeal to jurors on Wednesday, Ashqar attorney William Moffitt likened Hamas to movements around the world led by such champions of human rights as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
He drew a grim picture of life in the refugee camps and said the Palestinians resemble those left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.
Schar, in his rebuttal argument, told jurors that the situation in some parts of the Palestinian territories "is horrible." But he said that that did not excuse the crimes Salah and Ashqar allegedly committed.
"You are going to get instructions from the judge, and you can read those instructions for months and months but you won't find one that says that two wrongs make a right," Schar said.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Associated Press