US officials have arrested two men for allegedly participating in a 15-year racketeering conspiracy to help finance the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the US Justice Department said today.
Mr John Ashcroft
Mr Mohammed Hamid Khalil Salah was arrested in Chicago and Mr Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar in northern Virginia on Thursday.
The United States issued an arrest warrant for a third man, Mr Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, who was identified as the deputy chief of Hamas' political bureau and a former US resident who is at large in Syria. The spokesman declined to comment on whether the United States would seek his extradition.
"Today, terrorists have lost yet another source of financing and support for their bombs and bloodshed," US Attorney General Mr John Ashcroft said.
All three were charged with the racketeering conspiracy in an indictment that identified Hamas as a criminal enterprise.
"The indictment . . . alleges that the affairs of the enterprise were committed through multiple acts of conspiracy to commit and solicitation of first degree murder, conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons in a foreign country, money laundering . . . providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations" and other crimes.
In addition to racketeering, Mr Salah (51) was charged with providing material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organisation and obstruction of justice. He was expected to appear on Friday before a US magistrate in Chicago.
Mr Ashqar (46) was charged with obstruction of justice and contempt of court. He is expected to appear on Friday before a magistrate in Alexandria, Virginia.
Mr Marzook (53) formerly resided in Louisiana and northern Virginia.
The US Treasury designated Hamas a terrorist organisation in 1995, while the State Department formally designated it a "foreign terrorist organisation" in 1997.
Racketeering conspiracy in this case carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Providing material support to a terrorist organisation carries a maximum of 15 years in prison, and each count of obstruction of justice carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.