Published: August 20, 2004

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 — Three men have been charged with raising millions of dollars for Hamas, the group blamed for carrying out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, through a shadowy network of United States banks as part of a 15-year racketeering conspiracy, Attorney General John Ashcroft said today. Advertisement

Two of the suspects were arrested Thursday night, while the third is now in Damascus, Syria, and is classified as a fugitive, Mr. Ashcroft said at a news briefing here. He identified the suspects as Abdelhaleem Ashqar, who has lived in the Washington area; Muhammad Salah, who has lived in a Chicago suburb; and Mousa Abu Marzook, formerly of northern Virginia and Louisiana and now in Damascus.

The three were named in an indictment unsealed today in Chicago. The indictment seeks forfeiture of about $2.7 million in bank accounts under the defendants' control, Mr. Ashcroft said.

The attorney general said all three defendants were charged with racketeering conspiracy for taking part in the affairs of Hamas, which the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization since 1997 and which Mr. Ashcroft says has murdered many innocent people, including some American citizens abroad.

Mr. Salah and Mr. Ashqar are also charged with obstruction of justice, he said. Mr. Salah is believed to have lied under oath in testifying in a civil suit involving the murder of an American in the West Bank, while Mr. Ashqar at least twice refused to testify before grand juries despite a grant of immunity, the attorney general said.

Mr. Marzook is believed to be the deputy chief of Hamas's political bureau, which helps to coordinate terror attacks, Mr. Ashcroft said. He said the defendant, while living in the United States from 1988 to 1993, kept bank accounts in New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia and used them to funnel large sums of money to Hamas.

A lawyer for Mr. Ashqar told The Associated Press the indictment was "politically motivated." The lawyer, Ashraf Nubani, said his client was already under house arrest because of an earlier indictment accusing him of obstruction of justice, and that he had appeared at every required court hearing.

Mr. Ashqar came to the United States as a graduate student at the University of Mississippi, Mr. Ashcroft said. Mr. Ashqar is accused of being a money conduit for Hamas from 1989 onward, taking part in Hamas meetings in the United States and helping to plan the group's acts by means of coded telephone messages.

Mr. Salah traveled throughout the United States, Israel and the West Bank from 1989 to early 1993, meeting with Hamas members, recruiting and training new ones and distributing money to finance the organization, Mr. Ashcroft said.

Mr. Ashcroft said the case against the three defendants would have been much more difficult to bring, had it not been for legislation passed by Congress shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The legislation, dubbed the Patriot Act, makes it easier for intelligence-gatherers to share information with law enforcement agencies. The law's supporters say the law is a vital tool in battling terrorism; its critics say it can endanger civil liberties.