Two Men Acquitted of Conspiracy To Fund Hamas Activities in Israel

In December 2005, a jury in Florida acquitted former computer professor Sami al-Arian of eight terrorism charges and deadlocked on nine others. Arian eventually pleaded guilty to supporting members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and is slated to be deported after finishing a short prison term.

One of Arian's attorneys, William Moffit, also represented Ashqar in Chicago.

The case was prosecuted by the office of U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is in the spotlight as the special counsel in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff.

The Hamas prosecution also featured another central player in the Libby saga: former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who testified on behalf of prosecutors in Chicago about an Israeli interrogation session with Salah that she witnessed in the early 1990s.

Salah and his attorney argued that much of the evidence against him, including a confession, should be disregarded because it was obtained under torture when he was in Israeli custody. Miller testified that she saw no evidence of mistreatment when she witnessed an interrogation of Salah and -- in an unprecedented twist for a U.S. courtroom -- two Israeli interrogators testified under aliases that Salah was treated well.

Prosecutors also presented recorded conversations in which Ashqar discussed violent operations by Hamas. But Moffit said his client was never recorded planning any attacks or recruiting anyone to carry them out.

One other defendant remains under indictment in the case: Mousa Abu Marzook, Hamas's deputy political bureau chief, who was deported from the United States in 1997 and is now a fugitive living in Damascus, Syria.

Staff writer Kari Lydersen in Chicago and staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.