Two men accused of furnishing money and recruits to the militant Palestinian group Hamas were acquitted Thursday of racketeering conspiracy but convicted of lesser counts.
Muhammad Salah, 53, a former Bridgeview grocer, and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48, beamed broadly at the split verdict, and defense attorneys immediately declared victory in the three-month trial that the government had described as a major component in its war on terrorism.
“We are not terrorists,” Salah told reporters as he left the courthouse with his 8-year-old son, Ibrahim, on his shoulders.
“I feel good,” he said as he was hugged by relatives and well-wishers. “I thank God, and I hope justice will prevail.”
Prosecutors said the men sent cash to Hamas terrorists fighting the Israeli government to pay for murders, bombings and kidnappings. But defense attorneys portrayed them as freedom fighters, comparing them to Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Salah was convicted of obstruction of justice for providing false answers to questions in a civil suit filed by parents of an American teenager who was killed by Hamas terrorists at an Israeli bus stop.
Ashqar was convicted of obstruction of justice and criminal contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury after receiving immunity from prosecution for anything that he might have revealed.
Defense attorneys said they hoped to have the convictions reversed on appeal but said, at worst, the men would likely serve comparatively short sentences.
Ashqar attorney William Moffitt said: “It is very hard for an American jury to find people guilty if they’re fighting for their rights.”
