US files charges against Hamas leader

WASHINGTON - A senior leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, his wife and five employees of a Texas computer firm, all brothers, have been charged with violating the ban on financial dealings with terrorists, according to law enforcement sources.

On Wednesday they said the charges named Mousa Abu Marzook, a Hamas leader who was deported from the United States in 1997, his wife, the vice president of the computer company InfoCom Corp. and four of the man's brothers, all of whom are employees of the private firm, based in Richardson, Texas.

The sources said charges included export violations, making false statements, dealing in the property of a designated terrorist, conspiracy and money-laundering.

The vice president, Ghassan Elashi, is also the chairman of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Muslim charity in the United States. The U.S. government has designated the foundation a terrorist group and shut it down in 2001.

The sources said Elashi and his brothers also were charged with selling computers and computer parts to Libya and Syria, both designated by the U.S. government as state sponsors of terrorism.

Marzook and his wife were believed to be in the Middle East, the sources said. All of the other defendants are in custody in this country.

ACCUSED OF HIDING FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

The sources said Marzook is alleged to have conspired with INFOCOM to hide his financial transactions with the company.

In 1995, the U.S. government designated Marzook as a "terrorist" whose actions threatened the Middle East peace process -- a designation that made it illegal for any U.S. person or entity to conduct transactions with him.

The charges allege that InfoCom continued to engage in financial transactions with Marzook after the designation, the sources said.

They said Marzook is alleged to have entered into a Murabaha agreement, or an Islamic contract, to invest $250,000 in InfoCom in the name of his wife, a cousin of the Elashi brothers.

The 1993 agreement called for InfoCom to make regular payments to Marzook and his wife, based on the company's financial performance. The charges alleged the defendants conspired between 1995 and 2001 to renew the agreement annually and to make regular payments to Nadia Elashi, the sources said.

On the sales of computer and computer parts, the sources said InfoCom and the brothers are alleged to have sought to conceal that the shipments were ultimately destined for Libya by routing them through a shipping company in Malta.

They also are accused of falsely declaring that the computer shipments to Syria did not require a license, the sources said.

They said the charges capped an investigation into InfoCom, but the government's probe of the Holy land Foundation remains active and open.

In December 2001, the U.S. government designated Holy Land a terrorist group, based on its long-standing association with Hamas, an organisation that has claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed hundreds in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

Marzook was arrested in 1995 at a New York airport as he flew into the United States, where he had lived for at least 15 years. He was deported to Jordan in 1997.