Once again, Justice Dept. fails: mistrial declared in Holy Land Foundation case
Debbie Schlussel predicted this, that the Justice Department would not prove competant or provide proper evidence in dealing with investigations of terror funding. Now, it's been told that a mistrial's been declared in the case against the Holy Land Foundation for its support of Hamas. According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin):
See also at Little Green Footballs and A Blog for All for more on the case.
Update: WFAA reports that the Justice Dept. will retry the case. If they do, I should hope they're going to do better this time, and present better, stronger evidence in the case. Plus, they'd better hire some more talented lawyers to represent the prosecution!
Update 2: Slate says that the defendants aren't out of the woods yet (Hat tip: Hot Air Headlines).
DALLAS – Jurors in the terror-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) were ordered back to the jury room Monday morning after three panelists told a federal judge that they disagreed with the verdicts.My figuring is that the Justice Dept. may be the one at fault here. Clearly, it's in sore need of competant lawyers who can present a tour-de-force case for the prosecution, and I think that's another thing that should be discussed in the 2008 elections.
U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish polled the jury after announcing that HLF itself, and fundraiser Mufid Abdulqader were acquitted on all counts of providing illegal support to Hamas. Meanwhile, New Jersey representative Abdulrahman Odeh and founding HLF chairman Mohammed El-Mezain were acquitted on most counts against them.
It isn’t clear what jurors determined about HLF president Shukri Abu Baker or director Ghassan Elashi. They did tell the court they were unable to reach unanimous decisions on all counts. The men were charged with funneling more than $12 million in charity collections from the Richardson, TX-based charity to committees in the West Bank and Gaza that prosecutors contend are controlled by Hamas.
See also at Little Green Footballs and A Blog for All for more on the case.
Update: WFAA reports that the Justice Dept. will retry the case. If they do, I should hope they're going to do better this time, and present better, stronger evidence in the case. Plus, they'd better hire some more talented lawyers to represent the prosecution!
Update 2: Slate says that the defendants aren't out of the woods yet (Hat tip: Hot Air Headlines).
Labels: United States, war on terror
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