A leader of Hamas, his wife and five employees of a Texas computer company have been charged with breaking U.S. laws that ban dealing in "terrorist" funds, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
According to Reuters, they said the 33-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Dallas named Mousa Abu Marzook, a Hamas political leader who was deported from the United States in 1997.
The vice president of InfoCom Corp. and four of his brothers, all employees of the private firm based in Richardson, Texas, were also charged. The company also was indicted.
"We will follow the money of terror," Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a news conference. "And we will pursue the financiers of terror as aggressively as we pursue the thugs who do their dirty work."
The charges included export violations, making false statements, dealing in the property of a designated terrorist, conspiracy and money-laundering.
The vice president, Ghassan Elashi, is also chairman of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Muslim charity in the United States. The U.S. government shut the foundation down last year after designating it "a terrorist group."
Abu Marzook is alleged to have conspired with InfoCom to hide his financial transactions with the company. In 1995, the U.S. government designated Abu Marzook as a "terrorist" whose actions threatened the Middle East peace process.
On his part, Abu Marzook dismissed the accusations on Thursday as part of a "campaign against Muslims." "This is part of the American campaign against Muslims in general and Palestinians in particular," he commented. "It represents a direct service for Israeli interests," he said.
(Albawaba.com)
