Jurors began deliberating Thursday in the trial of two men accused of aiding the radical Palestinian group Hamas, after prosecutors told jurors not to let the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis cloud evidence of the men’s guilt.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Reid Schar sought to dismantle closing arguments laid by defense lawyers for Muhammad Salah and Abdelhaleem Ashqar in a point-by point rebuttal.
Salah, a Bridgeview businessman, and Ashqar, a longtime U.S. resident, are accused of using this country as a safe haven to transfer funds, coordinate operations and provide other aid to Hamas, an organization responsible for many terrorist attacks.
Schar said that torture was not used against Salah to force a confession during interrogation by Israeli forces in 1993.
The prosecutor focused on the burial site of Israeli soldier Ilan Sa’Doan, which Salah allegedly knew the whereabouts of and had attempted to use as a bargaining chip with the Israelis.
Salah’s negotiations with his captors refuted the notion of torture and corroborated his leadership role in Hamas, Schar said.
If Israelis tortured Salah into confessing, why would they set up an elaborate ruse that included a 54-day interrogation and a late night search for the body, Schar asked jurors.
Defense attorneys argued that after being tortured, Salah was forced to sketch a rough, inaccurate map of the location of Sa’doan’s body. They said that Israeli officials were using Salah, an American citizen, as a pawn to influence U.S. policy.
Schar countered that the map was accurate and placed the search party within 3 to 5 miles of where the body was found.
To discredit the idea Salah was tortured, Schar recalled the testimony of a defense expert who discussed the effects of torture.
“If you are tortured, you can’t think straight and you have memory loss. This guy is negotiating for [Hamas] prisoners and draws a map,” Schar said.
The prosecutor also emphasized that for the jury to convict both Salah and Ashqar, it did not matter that the U.S. did not designate Hamas a terrorist organization until 1995.
The crimes the defendants are charged with–facilitating killings and kidnappings–were illegal, regardless of the designation of the organization, he said.
“It doesn’t mean that before the designation it was OK to commit racketeering activities,” Schar said.
Schar attacked analogies used by Ashqar’s lawyer, William Moffit, in his closing arguments that compared Hamas’ fight against Israel with the American Revolution, the U.S. civil rights movement and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
A Hamas leader “calling to give congratulations to a suicide bomber’s family is not the same as Nelson Mandela,” he said.
Jury deliberations are scheduled to resume Friday morning.
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aahmed@tribune.com
