NATIONAL COALITION PROTESTS SUPREME COURT’S REFUSAL TO HEAR APPEAL IN CHARITYPROSECUTION

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

The National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF) strongly protests the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to

hear the appeal of the “Holy Land Five” defendants, Elashi et al. v. United States, that involves challenges to the Sixth Amendment right of the people to face witnesses in courts of law. Attorneys for the five defendants are evaluating all remaining options and will soon announce a decision on how they will proceed.

            The Holy Land case involved five men associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was the largest Muslim American charity until it was shut down on December 4, 2001 by presidential executive order and without due process. After prosecutors found that all funds raised by the charity went to humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territories, and that there were no illegal financial transactions from HLF, they employed the material support for terrorism statute as amended by the USA Patriot Act––a statute that civil liberty advocates call dangerously vague––to charge the five men with indirectly supporting terrorism through their legal charitable work. The prosecution's argument was that zakat committees used to distribute aid were "under the influence" of Hamas, despite the fact that none of the committees were on the government's list of banned foreign organizations. Zakat committees were also used by other charities, as well as the USAID (United States Agency for International Development), to distribute humanitarian aid in the region. The defendants argued that since Hamas was the democratically elected government of Gaza since 2006, the zakat committees were the only practical way to get money to people who needed it.

            The defendants faced two trials. The first, in 2007, ended in no convictions, but the judge ruled it a mistrial. The second trial in 2008 did end in convictions, with the key witness for the prosecution being an anonymous expert whom defense attorneys were unable to adequately cross-examine––a fact at odds with the Sixth Amendment.

            A member organization of NCPCF, the Muslim Legal Fund of America, funded the defense, appeal, and U.S. Supreme Court petition. NCPCF Acting Chairperson and MLFA Executive Director Khalil Meek stated: "It is a dark day for America when our nation's highest court refuses to hear a case that is affecting everyone's ability to get a fair trial in America. If judges are allowed to prevent defenders from challenging the credibility of expert witnesses, then our Sixth Amendment loses its teeth and our civil liberties suffer further erosion."

End.

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NCPCF Mission

Established in October 2010, the NCPCF is a coalition of national and local organizations as well as prominent individuals, whose mission is: To educate the public about the erosion of civil and political freedoms in the society, and the abuses of prisoners within the U.S. criminal justice system especially after 9/11, and to advocate for the preservation of those freedoms and to defend those rights according to the U.S. Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its related UN Conventions, and the Geneva Conventions.

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Member Organizations

American Muslim Alliance (AMA) - Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) - Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) - Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) - Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR) - Defending Dissent Foundation (DDF) - Desis, Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) - Friends of Human Rights (FHR) - International Action Center (IAC) - Islamic Circle of North America Council for Social Justice (ICNA-CSJ) - Muslim American Society Freedom (MAS-F) -Muslim Civil Liberties Union (MCLU) - Muslim Justice Initiative (MJI) - Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) - National Lawyers Guild (NLG) - National Liberty Fund (NLF) - The Peace Thru Justice Foundation (PTJF) - Project Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims (Project SALAM) - United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) - Universal Justice Foundation (UJF).

 

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