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Graphic by http://www.heartlight.org
The Judge has rendered the first sentence against the Holy Land Foundation Five this morning. Shukri Abu Bakr got 65 years. The sentencings are expected to take most of the day.
Breaking News on the Cover of the Dallas Morning News online site:
Holy Land Foundation defendant sentenced to 65 years
by Jason Trahan
“I did it because I cared, not at the behest of Hamas,” Shukri Abu Baker, 50, of Garland, told the judge during a long address to the court where he explained why he founded what was once the nation’s largest Muslim charity organization.
U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis, after cutting him off over the objections of his defense attorney, told the convicted man, “You didn’t tell the whole story. Palestinians were in a desperate situation, but that doesn’t justify supporting Hamas.”
Read the full story and updates online
I wrote this at 7:45 AM today: This day marks the end of a particular watch for me that has lasted since 1993 when I learned that our government knew Hamas was fund raising in the U.S. The most intense times for me were in the pre-9/11 summer & after the attacks in Sept of 2001, when we began actively encouraging the local Dallas newspapers not to wither under the protests over their investigations into the Holy Land Foundation.
Finally in 2007 the first trial of the HLF5 began in Dallas. It ended in a mistrial and was retried in federal court here in Dallas in 2008. Guilty verdicts were handed down all five defendants and much evidence of the deep tentacles of the Hamas terror organization were revealed in court evidence. Prayer teams pushed through this outcome.
Today, no matter how Judge Solis sentences each of the five, it is a victory that we had a part in and a day many experts believed in their hearts they were never going to see. Thank God that these men were held to account, may all their appeals before human courts be denied.
Donna Diorio
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