News 12 New Jersey
(07/29/04) CLIFTON - The lawyer for a New Jersey charity official charged with supporting
terrorists says his client is innocent of any wrongdoing.
Hamdi Risai says the money raised through the Holy Land Foundation by his client, Abdul
Rahman Odeh, was for charitable purposes only. Risai claims that Odeh was only the
director of the organization's Paterson office, and that his client knew very little about the
dealings at the organization's Texas headquarters.
The FBI raided the Paterson office of the Holy Land Foundation in 2001 after the charity
organization was suspected of giving money to the terrorist group, Hamas. The Justice
Department unsealed a 42-count indictment earlier this week that states seven of Holy
Land's former officials, including Odeh, "specifically targeted families for financial aid who
were related to known Hamas terrorists who had been killed or jailed by the Israelis."
Odeh and the other defendants will face a hearing in Texas where the trial is expected to
take place.
