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Judge won’t unfreeze Holy Land’s assets

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Friday August 9, 2002

Texas group linked to Hamas
CNN, Aug. 8, 2002
http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/08/08/frozen.assets.suit/index.html

From Brad Wright
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) –A federal judge refused Thursday to unblock the assets of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Dallas-based group accused of funneling money to the Islamic militant group Hamas.

The Bush administration froze Holy Land’s assets and raided its offices last December after determining that the group was aiding a terrorist organization. Holy Land sued, claiming government officials hadn’t sufficiently proved any link to terrorism and had violated its constitutional rights.

In an order filed Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler refused Holy Land’s request for a temporary injunction to unblock its assets. She also dismissed most of the claims in its lawsuit.
However, Kessler decided to allow one part of the case to move forward — whether a raid on Holy Land’s offices, in which documents, computers and furniture were seized, violated its Fourth Amendment right against unlawful search and seizure. The government did not obtain a warrant for that search.

But while she allowed litigation on that issue to continue, the judge indicated that she doubts Holy Land will prevail.
[...]

Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization, has been labeled by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization. The group’s military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and well as attacks against the Israeli military.

Kessler also ruled the government did not violate the Fifth Amendment’s prohibition against taking of property because Holy Land’s assets were frozen, not seized. And she rejected the group’s claim that its right of religious expression was being “substantially burdened,” noting that Holy Land calls itself a charity, not a religious organization.