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An Israeli court docket convicted a Palestinian support employee on Wednesday of diverting funds from the charity he labored for to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a case that spanned six years and drew criticism from rights teams, which stated he had been denied a good and clear trial.
The help employee, Mohammad El Halabi, 45, was a supervisor of the Gaza Strip department of World Imaginative and prescient, a Christian support group, when he was arrested in 2016. Israel charged him with funneling about $43 million of the group’s funds over numerous years to the army wing of the Palestinian faction. He was convicted of 13 of the 14 prices in opposition to him, which included utilizing property for terror functions.
Israeli officers have stated that Mr. Halabi transferred about 60 p.c of World Imaginative and prescient’s annual price range for Gaza to Hamas. A few of that cash was utilized by Hamas militants to dig cross-border tunnels to assault Israel, the officers stated.
World Imaginative and prescient stated there was no proof to assist the decision.
“We’ve beforehand expressed our vital considerations about this case,” the group stated in a press release. “In our view there have been irregularities within the trial course of and a scarcity of substantive, publicly obtainable proof. We assist Mohammad’s intent to attraction the choice, and name for a good and clear attraction course of based mostly on the info of the case.”
Within the wake of Mr. Halabi’s arrest, World Imaginative and prescient and a number of other of its main authorities donors, together with the US and Australia, commissioned an investigation. It was led by a world regulation agency and accompanied by an accounting agency’s audit, stated Sharon Marshall, a spokeswoman for the group.
“They may not discover any proof of diversion of funds,” Ms. Marshall stated, “or any connection between Mohammad and Hamas.” Mr. Halabi’s lawyer stated he’ll attraction his conviction after he’s sentenced, which may very well be in September.
Israel didn’t accuse World Imaginative and prescient of being concerned within the alleged scheme to divert funds.
The three-judge panel that convicted Mr. Halabi rejected the testimonies of protection witnesses and World Imaginative and prescient workers that the help group has tight management mechanisms that will make it unattainable for him to switch funds to Hamas.
Among the many different prices he was convicted of was carrying or possession of a weapon.
The decision stated Mr. Halabi “confessed to what was attributed to him throughout interrogation.”
However his lawyer, Maher Hanna, stated he by no means confessed to something, including that his consumer has maintained his innocence since his arrest.
The prosecution introduced an undercover informant who testified that he heard Mr. Halabi confess, Mr. Hanna stated.
“This can be a crooked confession,” he added.
The court docket’s verdict acknowledged that Mr. Halabi stated the confession used in opposition to him “was invented by somebody on behalf of” Israel’s inside safety company, the Shin Wager.
The responsible verdict in opposition to Mr. Halabi compounded a miscarriage of justice, stated Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch.
“Holding Halabi for six years based mostly largely on secret proof has made a mockery of due course of and essentially the most primary truthful trial provisions,” he stated in a press release. “He ought to way back have been launched. To proceed to cruelly detain him is profoundly unjust.”
He added that Mr. Halabi had rejected any plea offers, even when these offers would have had him free by now.
In 2020, 4 United Nations particular rapporteurs referred to as on the Israeli authorities to grant Mr. Halabi a good trial or launch him unconditionally. In accordance with the U.N. consultants, after his arrest, Mr. Halabi was questioned for 50 days with out entry to a lawyer.
“What is occurring to Mr. el-Halabi bears no relation to the trial requirements we anticipate from democracies, and is a part of a sample the place Israel makes use of secret proof to indefinitely detain a whole lot of Palestinians,” the consultants stated.
Hiba Yazbek and Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.
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