Raed Salah - Hamas Fundraising and 2003 Conviction

Hamas Fundraising and 2003 Conviction

Salah was convicted by Israel of funding Hamas, and of having contact with an Iranian intelligence agent. He served a two-year sentence from 2003 to 2005, after which he was released under a deal that barred him from traveling abroad and required him to check in with an officer every month.

Salah said the charges against him were a "mockery". Jonathan Cook, writing in Al-Ahram Weekly, reported human rights non-governmental organizations stated that Salah had been "unfairly denied bail despite his status and community ties." Cook also stated that while Salah and four other party leaders stood trial on serious charges of aiding and abetting a "terror organization", the Israeli police said the accusations revolved primarily around money laundering, and that for eighteen months prior to his arrest in 2003, Salah was barred from leaving Israel. According to Cook, the newspaper produced by the northern branch of the Islamic Movement was shut down and charities he had founded were closed, and since the election of Ariel Sharon, the Shin Bet had been monitoring and taping phone calls made by Salah and his officials, and intercepting e-mails as well. Cook cited rumors that over 200,000 recordings were awaiting translation from Arabic to Hebrew to prepare for his trial.