Verdict reached in the Holy Land Foundation terror trial

I just got the word from Dallas.

Jurors who deliberated 19 days reached a verdict Thursday in the trial of former leaders of a Muslim charity accused of funneling millions of dollars in illegal aid to Middle Eastern terrorists, but the decision won’t be unsealed until Monday.

Federal District Judge A. Joe Fish, who presided over the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development case, was out of town, and the magistrate who took the jury’s verdict said he was not legally empowered to read it.

The eight-woman, four-man jury showed no emotion as they walked into the courtroom to deliver the verdict. The jurors seemed to avoid eye contact with both the defendants and the prosecutors, except when lawyers for each side spoke during the brief proceeding.

Magistrate Paul Stickney took the verdict and handed it to a deputy to be sealed.

“Nobody, including myself, will even glance at it,” he said.

Stickney ordered the jurors not to discuss the case with anyone before Monday, and he ordered all parties in the case not to contact jurors.

Lawyers for each side and one of the five former Holy Land leaders on trial all declined comment as they left the courtroom.

The defendants could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

So we won’t know what the verdict actually is until Monday. Unindicted co-conspirator CAIR must be sweating bullets.

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