LOS ANGELES (AP) A top fund-raiser for an Islamic charity with
alleged links to terrorism has testified he believed the donations
were used only for humanitarian projects.
Lawyers for Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, 44, a founder of a mosque in
Anaheim, asked Monday that he be freed while fighting deportation
because he has strong family and community ties in the United
States.
He was arrested on immigration charges last month as federal
authorities unsealed an indictment against the Holy Land Foundation
for Relief and Development, charging the Texas-based charity
funneled millions to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Hamdan's detention has sparked protests by Southern California
Muslims who see it as an unfair pressure tactic to get him to
reveal information about Holy Land.
Hamdan, born in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank,
acknowledges traveling around the country as a Holy Land
fund-raiser. He insists, however, he has no information to support
allegations the group aided Hamas, which the United States has
labeled a terrorist organization.
``My mission was purely humanitarian, to help the children and
the disadvantaged people in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and around
the world,'' he said under questioning by his attorneys in a
cramped, windowless immigration hearing room on Terminal Island in
Los Angeles harbor.
Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union are seeking
Hamdan's release on bond while he seeks to become a legal resident.
The government asserts he is a flight risk and a threat to national
security.
After a day of testimony and motions, Judge D.D. Sitgraves
continued the bond hearing until Oct. 1. A hearing on whether he
can be deported has not yet been scheduled.
U.S. officials, citing confidentiality rules, have not disclosed
his alleged immigration violation; his attorneys say he is accused
of violating the student visa he used to enter the country from
Jordan in 1979.
His attorneys sought to portray the 44-year-old Buena Park man
as someone with deep ties to the community, calling as witnesses
his 20-year-old daughter and a businessman who has worked for his
mosque, the West Coast Islamic Society, near the ``Little Arabia''
section of Anaheim.
``My dad has lived here more than any other country. In a sense,
he's Americanized too,'' said Yaman Hamdan, the eldest of six
children all born in the United States. ``This is where our life is
... America is our country.''
Three men indicted on charges of using the Muslim charity to
provide $12.4 million to Hamas from 1995 to 2001 were released from
jail Friday in Dallas while they await an October trial. Two other
defendants were arrested in California and New Jersey and are
expected to be returned to Texas. Another two are fugitives outside
the United States.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)