Jurors reached a verdict Thursday in the trial of former members of a Muslim charity accused of funneling millions of dollars in legal aid to Middle Eastern terrorists.
Jurors had heard two months of testimony, mostly from FBI and Israeli agents who described thousands of pages of documents and hours of videotapes seized from Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, from former associates of the group, and from Palestinian charities that got money from Holy Land. Holy Land was once the nation's largest Muslim charity. The verdict was to be read Thursday afternoon.
UPDATE: A federal jury in Dallas has reached a verdict ending 19 days of deliberations in the high-stakes terrorism financing trial of a now-defunct Islamic charity. However, the decision will remain sealed until court resumes on Monday because the judge was out of town. A federal magistrate who presided over the jury's return said he was not authorized to release the verdict in the absence of U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish. "Nobody, including myself, will even glance at it," Magistrate Paul Stickney told the courtroom Thursday. |