3 Former Charity Leaders Found Guilty in Terrorism Case

A federal court in Boston convicted three leaders of a now-defunct Boston charity of lying to gain tax-exempt status for the organization and then using it to support Islamic fundamentalists abroad, reports The Boston Globe.

The three employees of Massachusetts Care International were convicted of a conspiracy to defraud the United States by failing to inform the Internal Revenue Service that some tax-exempt donations were used to publish writings in support of jihad, or holy war. Jurors also found that the defendants sought to conceal the origins of the charity as an outgrowth of the Al Kifah Refugee Center, in Brooklyn, N.Y., which was linked to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Additionally, Emadeddin Muntasser, Care International’s president from 1993 to 1996, was convicted for falsely denying to the FBI Afghanistan trips he made in 1994 and 1995, where he met with an Afghan mujahideen warlord, according to the article. Muhamed Mubayyid, the charity’s treasurer from 1997 to 2003, was also charged with filing several false tax returns. The third defendant, Samir Al-Monla, served as the organization’s president from 1996 to 1998.

Following the convictions, assistant U.S. Attorney General for national security, Kenneth L. Wainstein, said in a statement, “This prosecution serves notice that we will not tolerate the use of charities as a means of promoting terrorism.”

The defense lawyers vowed to appeal the convictions, citing juror bias. The charity leaders, whose bail was revoked following the convictions, could face up to three or four years in prison.

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