Found this at several different news sites, but thought I would post this one from the Muslim American Society.
http://www.masnet.org/news.asp?id=1952
U.S. Orders Alleged Hamas Funders to Pay Damages for Death
Date Posted: Thursday, December 09, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Islamic charities based in the U.S. were ordered to pay $156 million in damages to the parents of a teenager killed in Israel by Hamas.
CHICAGO, Dec 9 (MASNET & News Agencies) - A judge ordered three Islamic charities accused of raising money for the Palestinian group Hamas to pay $156 million in damages to the parents of a an American teenager slain in the West Bank.
David Boim, 17, was shot and killed in a 1996 attack while standing at a bus stop in the West Bank by two men who drove by in a car, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
His parents turned to U.S. courts, invoking a 1992 law that allows victims of terrorism abroad to collect civil damages in American courts from groups deemed responsible for such acts, reports Reuters news agency.
Stanley and Joyce Boim, U.S. citizens who moved to Israel, filed suit against three U.S.-based Islamic groups, arguing they were liable in their son's death because of their alleged fundraising activities for Hamas.
Judge Arlander Keys found for the Boims and against two groups and a Palestinian-American from suburban Chicago last month. The case against a fourth charity, the Quranic Literacy Institute, a group that translates Islamic religious texts, went to trial Wednesday, and a jury ruled it too was liable.
The jury ordered the defendants to pay Boim's family damages in the amount of $52 million.
Keys tripled the damages awarded by the jury as mandated by federal statute, taking the figure to $156 million, plus court fees and costs.
The groups involved are the Quranic Literacy Institute and the Islamic Association for Palestine, both of which are based in suburban Chicago, and the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
Fundraiser Mohammed Salah was also found liable. The 51-year-old is charged with two others of using U.S. bank accounts to funnel money to Hamas in a separate criminal case.
The weeklong trial focused on the Quranic Literacy Institute and its relationship with Salah, who claimed to be an employee and served five years in prison in the Mideast in the 1990s after pleading guilty to funneling money to Hamas, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The institute's attorney, John Beal, refused to take any active part in the trial. He said the judge did not provide enough time to prepare a defense, the news agency reports.
Beal repeatedly insisted there was an innocent explanation for each of the allegations. He said the case would be appealed.
Amer Haleem, the secretary of the Quranic Literacy Institute, criticized the trial as unfair and as part of a wave of persecution of American Muslims, reports the AP.
Stephen Landes, a lawyer for the family, said it was the first decision in a U.S. court where private citizens have won such a judgment from private individuals or groups, reports Reuters.
The damages awarded were "generous but appropriate," said Landes. "The jury obviously felt the pain of the Boim family." He speculated, however, that the case "may wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court."
Lawyers for the Boims? had said in advance that no money may ever be collected, but the real point of the case was to set a precedent for going after "the domestic enablers of terrorism."
Salah was arrested on August 19, 2004, and charged along with two others with a racketeering conspiracy to funnel money to Hamas for the past 15 years, reports Reuters.
Landes contended at the trial that Salah went to the West Bank with hundreds of thousands of dollars destined for Hamas, and that the Quranic Literacy Institute also gave him money.
The Holy Land Foundation, once the largest U.S.-based Muslim charity, was shut down when the U.S. government seized its assets after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Not long after that the Treasury Department designated the charity a terrorist group and froze its assets, saying the Foundation funneled millions of dollars to Hamas - which the U.S. government had declared to be a terrorist group in 1995, reports Reuters.
The group appealed the designation and the freezing of its assets but lost in court.
The Islamic Association for Palestine describes itself as an educational, political and social organization dedicated to Palestinian causes. Its U.S. headquarters is in Bridgeview, Illinois, near Chicago, the news agency reports.
Salah and Holy Land are both currently under federal indictment on charges of stemming from their alleged support of Hamas, reports the AP.
http://www.masnet.org/news.asp?id=1952
U.S. Orders Alleged Hamas Funders to Pay Damages for Death
Date Posted: Thursday, December 09, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Islamic charities based in the U.S. were ordered to pay $156 million in damages to the parents of a teenager killed in Israel by Hamas.
CHICAGO, Dec 9 (MASNET & News Agencies) - A judge ordered three Islamic charities accused of raising money for the Palestinian group Hamas to pay $156 million in damages to the parents of a an American teenager slain in the West Bank.
David Boim, 17, was shot and killed in a 1996 attack while standing at a bus stop in the West Bank by two men who drove by in a car, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
His parents turned to U.S. courts, invoking a 1992 law that allows victims of terrorism abroad to collect civil damages in American courts from groups deemed responsible for such acts, reports Reuters news agency.
Stanley and Joyce Boim, U.S. citizens who moved to Israel, filed suit against three U.S.-based Islamic groups, arguing they were liable in their son's death because of their alleged fundraising activities for Hamas.
Judge Arlander Keys found for the Boims and against two groups and a Palestinian-American from suburban Chicago last month. The case against a fourth charity, the Quranic Literacy Institute, a group that translates Islamic religious texts, went to trial Wednesday, and a jury ruled it too was liable.
The jury ordered the defendants to pay Boim's family damages in the amount of $52 million.
Keys tripled the damages awarded by the jury as mandated by federal statute, taking the figure to $156 million, plus court fees and costs.
The groups involved are the Quranic Literacy Institute and the Islamic Association for Palestine, both of which are based in suburban Chicago, and the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
Fundraiser Mohammed Salah was also found liable. The 51-year-old is charged with two others of using U.S. bank accounts to funnel money to Hamas in a separate criminal case.
The weeklong trial focused on the Quranic Literacy Institute and its relationship with Salah, who claimed to be an employee and served five years in prison in the Mideast in the 1990s after pleading guilty to funneling money to Hamas, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The institute's attorney, John Beal, refused to take any active part in the trial. He said the judge did not provide enough time to prepare a defense, the news agency reports.
Beal repeatedly insisted there was an innocent explanation for each of the allegations. He said the case would be appealed.
Amer Haleem, the secretary of the Quranic Literacy Institute, criticized the trial as unfair and as part of a wave of persecution of American Muslims, reports the AP.
Stephen Landes, a lawyer for the family, said it was the first decision in a U.S. court where private citizens have won such a judgment from private individuals or groups, reports Reuters.
The damages awarded were "generous but appropriate," said Landes. "The jury obviously felt the pain of the Boim family." He speculated, however, that the case "may wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court."
Lawyers for the Boims? had said in advance that no money may ever be collected, but the real point of the case was to set a precedent for going after "the domestic enablers of terrorism."
Salah was arrested on August 19, 2004, and charged along with two others with a racketeering conspiracy to funnel money to Hamas for the past 15 years, reports Reuters.
Landes contended at the trial that Salah went to the West Bank with hundreds of thousands of dollars destined for Hamas, and that the Quranic Literacy Institute also gave him money.
The Holy Land Foundation, once the largest U.S.-based Muslim charity, was shut down when the U.S. government seized its assets after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Not long after that the Treasury Department designated the charity a terrorist group and froze its assets, saying the Foundation funneled millions of dollars to Hamas - which the U.S. government had declared to be a terrorist group in 1995, reports Reuters.
The group appealed the designation and the freezing of its assets but lost in court.
The Islamic Association for Palestine describes itself as an educational, political and social organization dedicated to Palestinian causes. Its U.S. headquarters is in Bridgeview, Illinois, near Chicago, the news agency reports.
Salah and Holy Land are both currently under federal indictment on charges of stemming from their alleged support of Hamas, reports the AP.
