Biography
Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar was a Howard University Professor and Palestinian activist who fled to the United States in 1981 as a college student after being arrested and beaten by authorities for participating in a political demonstration at Birzeit University against Israel’s military occupation. In the United States he finished his education and founded the al-Aqsa Educational Fund which was a charity that funded schooling initiatives in Palestine. Dr. Ashqar would give frequent lectures and speeches about the plight of the Palestinian people. Due to transferring large sums of money to the Middle East the account of his foundation was flagged as a potential money laundering account but was cleared by the FBI, though after consulting Israeli intelligence the FBI was told the money could be being used for terrorism. The FBI bugged Dr. Ashqars phone but found no evidence he was involved in terrorism. The FBI set up a meeting with Ashqar where they asked him to become an undercover informant and make statements to them that other Palestinian activists were Hamas members. He refused and in 1998 was subpoenaed Ashqar, to testify in a grand jury as part of the FBI’s investigation into a network of alleged Hamas financiers in the United States, Ashqar refused to testify and spent 6 months held in solitary confinement. In September 2003, he was jailed for civil contempt for two months after refusing again to testify in an investigation One year later, a grand jury returned indictments against Ashqar for obstructing justice, along with indictments against Marzook and Muhammad Salah, a Chicago-based Palestinian activist who had earlier been arrested by Israel and was allegedly tortured into confessing membership to Hamas. Prosecutors also charged Ashqar with being part of a conspiracy to advance Hamas’s criminal actions by financing the militant group. Ashqar was found not guilty on charges of financing Hamas. was convicted for obstructing justice over his refusal to give testimony in November 2007 instead sentenced him to 11 years in prison. After being released he spent the next 18 months in immigration detention finally released in December 2018 But after about six months at home, Ashqar was back in prison. His lawyer feared that ICE still wanted to deport him to Israel. Jurors acquitted Ashqar of racketeering conspiracy, but was still sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison for refusing to testify before a grand jury that was investigating money- laundering and non-profits funding “terrorist” organizations. These charges are broad sweeping and are the same types of charges being brought against Dr. Dhafir. http://www.free-ashqar.org/
