HLF Prosecutors Adjust Case

The Dallas Morning News reports that two defendants in the Hamas-support trial involving the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development have seen all charges against them dropped, except for the sweeping count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh still face up to 55 years in prison if convicted, but the changes drop a series of individual transactions that prosecutors argued went to benefit Hamas. That forced jurors to assess each transaction and unanimously agree that a charity committee receiving the money was controlled by Hamas.

Jury selection for a retrial of Abdulqader, Odeh and three others is scheduled to begin Sept. 15. Their first trial ended in a mistrial last October after jurors could not reach unanimous verdicts in the case.

A former federal prosecutor tells the newspaper that the move signals that "The government is trying to get back to basics and focus on the cleanest and most easily understandable allegations."

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