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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: March 22, 2006 |
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A man accused of laundering money to finance terrorist operations by the Palestinian militant group Hamas gave Israeli police a detailed account of his shadowy life in the underground when arrested in 1993, according to documents.
Muhammad Salah told how he was recruited into the Muslim Brotherhood by the leader of a Chicago-area mosque, sought out recruits for militant activity in Israel and engaged in secret transfers of large sums with a Mideastern money changer, according to documents released Tuesday.
One document tells how automatic rifles and bombs were hidden in secret West Bank caches.
"The region of Bethlehem was renowned for its pipe bombs," Salah is quoted as saying in one of the hundreds of pages of documents made public by federal prosecutors.
Salah, 52, is one of three men charged in a federal racketeering indictment with laundering money to finance murders, kidnappings and other crimes by Hamas as part of a 15-year conspiracy.
He was born in Jerusalem and moved to the United States in 1970. Salah is a naturalized citizen who has long lived in a Chicago suburb.
Salah's attorney, Michael E. Deutsch, sought to bar release of the documents, saying his client made the statements after his January 1993 arrest in Israel only because he was tortured and later tricked by Israeli authorities.
He said Salah had been forced to wear a foul-smelling hood, deprived of sleep for days and made to sit in a tiny, painful chair, among other things.
Prosecutors are hoping to use the statements Salah made at his trial and that of Abdelhaleem Ashqar of Alexandria, Virginia, which is scheduled for October.
A third defendant charged, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, described by federal officials as the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, was deported from the United States a decade ago and currently is believed to be living in Damascus, Syria.
Defense attorneys are asking U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve to rule out use of the documents, saying they were obtained under torture. But federal prosecutors say there was no torture and Salah made the statements willingly.
Salah was arrested in Israel in January 1993, pleaded guilty two years later to bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars (euros) to finance Hamas activities and served five years in prison.
The documents are three statements Israelis say Salah made to police, a handwritten document he produced while in prison and the transcript of a taped interview after that.
In one of the Israeli police documents, Salah is quoted as saying that before flying to Israel in January 1993 he met with a contact in London who directed the distribution of funds to Hamas operatives: $100,000 in Gaza, $200,000 in Nablus, $50,000 in Hebron and $100,000 in Ramallah. |
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