January 24, 2008 | Read Time: 3 minutes
A federal jury this month convicted three former leaders of a defunct Boston charity of lying to obtain tax-deductible donations and using the funds to support Islamic militants.
The charity, Care International, operated from 1993 to 2003 and collected $1.7-million in donations. Emadeddin Muntasser, the charity’s president from 1993 to 1996; Muhamed Mubayyid, the charity’s treasurer from 1997 to 2003; and Samir Al-Monla, Care International’s president from 1996 to 1998, were convicted in U.S. district court in Boston of using the donations to publish a newsletter and other writings in favor of jihad, or holy war, and the mujahideen, Muslim holy warriors.
“For years, these defendants used an allegedly charitable organization as a front for the collection of donations that they used to support violent jihadists,” said a written statement prepared by Kenneth L. Wainstein, assistant U.S. attorney general for national security. “This prosecution serves notice that we will not tolerate the use of charities as a means of promoting terrorism.”
Norman Zalkind, a lawyer representing Mr. Muntasser, said he and lawyers for the other two defendants all planned to appeal. He said that the case was riddled with “issues,” including the fact that the defendants are Muslim. “It’s more difficult for them to get a fair trial than non-Muslims at this period in time,” he said.
Lawyers for the defendants introduced evidence that Care International also sent money to Muslim widows and orphans and victims of disasters worldwide.
60 Hours
Jurors deliberated for 60 hours over nine days. They found that the defendants concealed from the Internal Revenue Service that Care International grew out of the Boston branch of Al-Kifah Refugee Center.
The defendants formed the new organization after media reports linked Al-Kifah’s Brooklyn office to the World Trade Center bombing in New York in 1993.
Prosecutors argued that the defendants had filed false information on the application for tax-exempt status for Care International, and later on the charity’s Form 990 tax returns, by concealing the charity’s pro-jihad and pro-mujahideen activities. Both the application for tax-exempt status and the Form 990 require a charity to list its activities.
During the trial, two retired IRS officials who were involved in granting the charity tax-exempt status said they would have rejected the application had they seen the group’s inflammatory newsletter, Al-Hussam.
But Marc Owens, a Washington lawyer who from 1990 to 2000 was head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, served as a witness for the defense during the trial, and he said he would have overruled such a decision by the IRS officials.
Mr. Owens testified that Al-Hussam was a form of constitutionally protected speech, and that he would have approved the charity’s application for tax-exempt status even if he had seen the newsletter.
Previous Convictions
Mr. Mubayyid also was convicted of submitting false tax returns for three years and of obstructing and impeding the IRS.
Mr. Muntasser was convicted of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2003 when he denied traveling to Afghanistan in 1994 and 1995.
The government presented evidence at trial that he had met with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahideen warlord who advocated global jihad.
During an October 2001 search of Care International’s storage unit, investigators found a pledge of support to Mr. Hekmatyar that was signed by Mr. Muntasser and Mr. Al-Monla.
The men are scheduled to be sentenced in April. Prosecutors say they could face up to three or four years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
