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Award In Terrorism Suit Nixed

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The Washington Post

Published: December 29, 2007

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court in Chicago overturned a $156 million jury award against a former Muslim charity once billed as the nation's largest and several other defendants Friday, saying the plaintiffs failed to prove that financial contributions to a Palestinian terrorist group played a direct role in the slaying of an American teenager in Israel.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit voided a lower court judge's 2004 ruling on behalf of Stanley and Joyce Boim, whose son David was shot by Hamas operatives in the West Bank in 1996. The U.S. government designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997.

U.S. District Judge Arlander Keys in Chicago ruled then that the Boims did not have to show that the defendants aided the attack or were aware of it, only that they "were involved in an agreement to accomplish an unlawful act."

Arlander said the defendants - defunct charities the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, and the American Muslim Society/Islamic Association for Palestine; and a man named Mohammed Salah - were liable because they paid Hamas in 1993 and 1994 for speaking engagements and distributed propaganda for the group.

On Friday, U.S. Circuit Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner wrote: "Belief, assumption, and speculation are no substitutes for evidence in a court of law."

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