Terrorist funder sentenced.

A former engineer with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation was one of five persons sentenced Wednesday in Dallas for raising millions of dollars in this country and illegally funneling it to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. He was Mufid Abdulqader, 49 who attended Oklahoma State University and went to work for the State Highway department.


He drew a 20-year prison sentence for three conspiracy counts for raising money through the Holy Land Foundation for relief and Development, once the largest Muslim charity in the United States. He and other leaders of the charity were convicted last November on charges that included supporting a terrorist organization to money laundering and tax fraud. Two others, Shukri Abu Baker, 50 and Ghassan Elashi, 55, were sentenced each to 65 years in prison. A fourth man, Mohammad El-Mezain, 55 got 15 years while Abdulrahman Odeh was sentenced to 15 years in prison.