Court upholds $156M Palestinian terror verdict

[Ban Hammer 14,293]

CHICAGO – A federal appeals court upheld a $156 million judgment Wednesday against three U.S.-based Islamic groups accused of bankrolling terrorism in a landmark civil case.

The U.S. charities must be held liable if they gave money to groups that engage in terrorist acts, even if they designated the funds were for humanitarian purposes, the decision by the 10 judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said.

The suit was filed in 2000 by the parents of American-born David Boim, who was a 17-year-old yeshiva student when he was killed by Hamas terrorists in a 1996 drive-by shooting at a bus stop on Israel's West Bank. The Boims' lawsuit claimed the groups that gave to Palestinian charities ultimately helped fund terrorism.

"This is the most significant judicial opinion on liability for terrorist financing ever decided by a United States court," said Chicago attorney Stephen Landes, who represented Boim's parents.

The decision upheld a lower-court judgment against the American Muslim Society, the Islamic Association for Palestine-National and the Quranic Literacy Institute.

The appeals court also sent civil allegations against a fourth charity — the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development — back to U.S. District Court for a decision on whether it should have to pay part of the $156 million.

The appeals court said a decision in a separate case in Washington that Holy Land Foundation supplied aid to terrorists was improperly applied in this case.

But the court dropped a Chicago man, Muhammad Salah, as a defendant, saying he had been a prisoner in an Israeli jail when the anti-terrorism law was passed, so he could not have violated it.

Salah attorney Matthew J. Piers said that court's opinion was "an affirmation long overdue that the idea that he did anything that could make him legally responsible for the death of David Boim is ridiculous."

Quranic Literacy attorney John M. Beal said he was happy for Salah, a former Quranic Literacy employee.

"It's good that he got off," said Beal. But he added that Quranic Literacy should have also been dropped because "our real involvement is through his working at" Quranic Literacy.

Attorneys for the American Muslim Society and the Islamic Association for Palestine-National didn't immediately comment Wednesday.

In December 2004, a federal court jury ordered a $52 million judgment against the charities and Salah, and the trial judge immediately tripled the amount.

A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit last December overturned that order, saying the Boims had not shown a close enough link between the charitable contributions and terrorist acts by Hamas. But the 7th Circuit last June threw out that order and called for en banc consideration of the case that has been watched by attorneys across the nation.

The Palestinian Authority in 1997 arrested two men described as Boim's attackers. One confessed and was sentenced to 10 years by a Palestinian court.

According to the Boim suit, the other was released and participated in a suicide bombing that killed five civilians and injured 192.

Salah was arrested in the 1990s by Israeli police after almost $100,000 in cash was found in his East Jerusalem hotel room. He served 4 1/2 years of his five-year sentence and returned to the United States. More recently, he was sentenced to 22 months in prison for lying on a written questionnaire in the Boim lawsuit.

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[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I'm shocked!!

[mawilson 2,133]

Good. Charities my аss.

[Ban Hammer 14,293]

Good. Charities my аss.

your azz is a charity?