A large, U.S.-based Muslim charity group sued the U.S. Treasury Department seeking dismissal of many of the charge filed against it for allegedly financing terrorism. The Holy Land Foundation, of Richardson, Texas, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Dallas two weeks after a federal judge in California called into question an important provision in designating terrorist supporters. Since December, 2001, the Treasury Department has designated Holy Land and five other Muslim charities in the United States as terrorist supporters, seizing millions of dollars in assets and putting a stop to some of their activities. No accused charity or any senior officer have been convicted on a charge of terrorism, and some charities have faced no criminal charges. The government has accused the foundation of having been the American fund-raising arm of Hamas, and the charity and five other officers are expected to go on trial in July on charges of financing a foreign terrorist organization.
