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Karl Schembri
Malta is helping the United States in a showcase trial against five Palestinian brothers in Texas who allegedly “endangered the nation” by shipping computers destined for Hamas in Libya and Syria.
The case, which has grabbed media attention for the heavy-handed approach the US adopted against the five Muslims who are being labelled as “supporters of terrorism,” involves Malta because prosecutors believe the accused sent computer keyboards, modems and processing units through an intermediary here.
Asked who the intermediaries were and whether they were Maltese, US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Thomas Murphy told MaltaToday that he would not answer questions given that the two countries were working on the case.
“The US and Malta are cooperating in an ongoing potential criminal case and the embassy is not in a position to offer any detailed comments at this time as the investigation is ongoing,” Murphy said.
However, a spokesman for Home Affairs and Justice Minister Tonio Borg said he was not in a position to confirm that Malta was cooperating with the US as the government would not know what the police were doing.
The defence lawyers of the Elashi brothers say they were innocent bystanders of the infamous US war on terrorism.
Their arrest three months after 9/11 was announced with much fanfare by Attorney General John Ashcroft, who charged the brothers were helping to support and finance terrorism through the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Defence lawyers suggested the men were singled out for criminal prosecution because they are Muslims. One asked for a mistrial when a federal prosecutor mentioned nationality and religion in his opening statement, but the judge denied the request.
The defence lawyers also said the export violations are typically classified as regulatory crimes for which violators pay civil fines. Some large US companies only paid fines and faced no criminal action for illegally shipping equipment to Libya and Syria.
The brothers were linked to a Muslim charity called the Holy Land Foundation, a charity which had an office across from their computer company in suburban Dallas. The foundation was shut down after 11 September. President George Bush had said the charity used to send money to Hamas which used it “to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers.” However, much like his statements about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, his claims were never substantiated.
The trial was scheduled to resume tomorrow. Lawyers estimated it would last two to three weeks.
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