By MIKE ROBINSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer
Published January 25, 2007, 4:57 PM CST
CHICAGO -- Jurors in the trial of two men charged with furnishing money and fresh recruits to Hamas terrorists announced Thursday that they are getting tired and are cutting their work hours.
"We have taken very few breaks," the jurors said in a note to U.S.
District Judge Amy J. St. Eve who is presiding at the trial, described when
the indictment was made public as a step in the war on terrorism.
Jurors said in the note that they are suffering from "mental fatigue."
Former Chicago grocer Muhammad Salah, 53, and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48, a former assistant business professor at Washington's Howard University, are charged with racketeering conspiracy and other offenses.
They are accused among other things of funneling thousands of dollars through American bank accounts to Hamas terrorists on the West Bank and the Gaza strip seeking to topple the government of Israel.
Both men say any money they furnished was destined for such purposes as clinics and day-care centers. Hamas is blamed for a number of murders, bombings and kidnappings. But the group also operates various charities and holds a 60 percent majority in the Palestinian legislative council.
Jurors heard three months of testimony in the case and have deliberated on the evidence for nine days.
In their note, they told St. Eve that they had been working diligently to reach a verdict. But they went home Thursday without reaching one.
Instead, they said that they would work a half day on Friday and from now on start work at 9 a.m. and normally quit for the day at 4 p.m.
When lunch was delivered to the jury room around noon on Thursday, the laughter and chatter that came through the open door was relaxed and friendly sounding.
Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press