US: Man sentenced for lying in Hamas case

A Chicago medical van driver accused by the government of funneling money to Mideast terrorists was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in federal prison for lying in a civil lawsuit.

Muhammad Salah, 54, was also fined $25,000 by US District Judge Amy J. St. Eve and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.

"Telling the truth is the bedrock of our judicial system and a slap on the wrist will not provide a deterrent," St. Eve said.

The judge turned down emotional appeals from the defense for probation instead of a prison term and gave him until Oct. 11 to surrender and start his sentence.

Salah was convicted in February of lying under oath in a civil lawsuit concerning the murder in Israel of a teenager by Hamas terrorists.

The indictment against Salah was originally announced at a news conference with then-US Attorney General John Ashcroft, who called it a major step in the war on terrorism. He said Salah and co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar operated "a US-based terrorist recruiting and financing cell."

But a jury on Feb. 1 acquitted Salah and Ashqar of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at bankrolling the terrorist group Hamas.

The same jury, however, did convict Salah of a single count of obstruction of justice for lying under oath on a written questionnaire involving the shooting death in Israel of an American teenager, David Boim. The Boim family sued Salah and a number of Islamic charities, claiming that they had funneled money to Hamas terrorists.

Among other things, Salah omitted mention of ties to Hamas.

The jury convicted Ashqar, a former business professor, of refusing to testify before a federal grand jury after he had been granted immunity from prosecution. He will be sentenced at a later date.

'It's politics gain'

Prosecutors had asked St. Eve to sentence Salah to 10 years; his attorney, Michael E. Deutsch, had asked for probation.

Salah addressed the court, describing the United States as "the nation of nations."

"I was homeless and it gave me a home, I was stateless and it gave me a state," he said.

After court, he said the sentence was unfair. "It's politics again," Salah told a reporter. "You can't destroy a family just to please a bunch of zealots."

Salah served a 4 1/2-year prison sentence in Israel for aiding Hamas and returned to the United States after he was released in 1997.

While in prison, he confessed to aiding Hamas. He now claims he was tortured into making the statements by tough Israeli interrogators.