Biography
Ghassan Eashi was a Palestinian born American businessman who founded the holy land foundation which was the largest Islamic charity in the united states and spent millions building schools and hospitals in Gaza and Palestine. The Israeli government lobbied for years to have it shut down and after 9/11 president bush signed an executive order declaring the group a domestic terrorist organization. The government arrested its employees and argued that by building infrastructure in Palestine with charity money that it negated the need for the elected government of Palestinian which was Hamas to build their own infrastructure and so could use the money they would have spent on hospitals instead on terrorism. After a number of mistrials and acquittals the us government was able to convict 5 members of the board who were given sentences in 2009 that ranged from 15 to 65 years in jail. In 2009, he was sentenced to 65 years in prison.
Sentence and custody-source verification
The October 13, 2006 Northern District of Texas sentencing announcement, preserved in the Infocom case archive reports a separate Infocom sentence: Ghassan Elashi received 80 months on October 12, 2006 before Judge Sam A. Lindsay. This is distinct from the later Holy Land Foundation prosecution already recorded here. The announcement says he was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on January 16, 2007; it does not establish that surrender actually occurred on that date. No new custody admission or discharge, separate case, or alteration to the existing Holy Land Foundation dates has been inferred.
On July 12, 2006, Judge Sam A. Lindsay denied the postverdict acquittal motion in the Infocom prosecution. The opinion records the April 13, 2005 jury verdict.
On December 29, 2008, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the InfoCom judgment as to Ghassan Elashi. It concerns InfoCom, separately from the Holy Land Foundation case.
