WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal of four Holy Land Foundation organizers who were convicted on charges of conspiring to send money to Hamas.
The appeal was declined Monday without explanation.
The Texas-based Holy Land Foundation had its assets frozen by the Bush administration in December 2001. The Islamic charity and five defendants were found guilty in 2008 on charges of funneling money to Hamas.
The four appellants, of the five convicted in 2008, were Shukri Abu Baker, sentenced to 65 years in prison; Ghassan Elashi, sentenced to 65 years; Mufid Abdulqader, sentenced to 20 years; Abdulrahman Odeh, sentenced to 15 years.
The charity’s organizers had appealed their convictions, objecting to federal prosecutors’ use of anonymous Israeli witnesses, among other things.
