Arab grocers in St.L. sentenced for sending money to Middle East

[Tyler Durden]

Here is the link:

http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=197581&catid=3

KSDK -- Another grocery store owner appeared before a federal judge for sentencing Tuesday, and received another relatively light sentence.

Nael Abdeljabbar admitted to selling contraband cigarettes and was facing up to six months in prison. Instead, Judge Charles Shaw, complaining about the "aura" of an investigation into unseen terrorists, sentenced Abdeljabbar to three years probation and a fine.

Abdeljabbar and nearly a dozen other men were arrested by the FBI in October 2008, named in a racketeering conspiracy that funneled money to the Middle East. The agents never came out and said it, but hinted at dark motives for the money shuttles.

On Tuesday, a federal prosecutor used a rhetorical question to the judge to raise the issue anew.

In court, the prosecutor, when questioned about sentencing for one of the defendants, asked the judge if he would feel differently about sentencing if the recipient of money from the St. Louis groceries was a member of Hamas. The judge didn't answer and the line of inquiry was dropped. However, the name of a recipient was given in court.

Abdeljabbar left court with his wife, singing the praises of Judge Shaw, saying he felt like justice was done. His attorney, Rick Sindel, quoted Shakespeare in court, saying the case was "much ado about nothing." Sindel says it was a case of a store owner selling illegal cigarettes, not funding terror.

Ghandi Hamed was also supposed to be sentenced Tuesday, but his lawyer disputed facts in a presentencing report that he had urged a government informant to bring in stolen goods for resale at his store. Defense attorney Larry Hale says the informant pushed the stolen goods on Hamed, but government lawyers say it was the other way around.

Judge Shaw will hear evidence in that issue on April Fools Day.

Meanwhile, two other men who were sentenced to prison time, from six months to 16 months, have asked the judge to reconsider their sentences.

The men, Mohammed Badwan and Suhail Jarabaa, say they received jail time, even though other men in their case, who admitted to more serious crimes, were not given jail time.

Badwan and Jarabaa say it's not fair they received disproportionate sentences, and they will get another hearing to argue that point.

 

What say you?

[fightingquaker13]

It depends. Was this just about sending money without Uncle Sam's Ho-tay, or were there connections to bad actors? Here's the deal. Its a cultural thing. In the middle east there is a tradition of merchants acting as bankers. For a fee they will hold and process cash and forward it on to some other merchan with a letter of credit so your uncle Abdul can show up at his local Quikee Mart and get $5k no questions asked. This sort of thing has been going on since camels were new. Its actually the system the Knights Templar adopted that made their money and got them in trouble. You went on a pilgramege from France and gave X ducats to the Templars. You got a receipt. At any other Templar stronghold, you could draw on that. Same deal. Its a lot like the Korean revolving credit pools. Different cultures deal with local banking different ways and most of those ways don't make the IRS happy. So the question is, was this guy just running an off the books local bank, as his many times great grand daddy did,  or sending money to Hamas?

[Solus]

Hard to tell with the facts given.

It seems to leave some doubt if there was, indeed, a terrorist connection.

I might take a guess based on hunches, but officially, I will deffer to the man making the call, the judge in this instance, even though I often have my doubts about the decisions they make.

Without more information, that is my default take.

[tombogan03884]

Black market (un taxed ) cigarettes have been a source of terrorist funding in several other cases.
Why did the Prosecutor ask about Hamas ? was it just the first terror group he thought of or  (more likely) do they have further information that was felt they did not need to use ?

[fightingquaker13]

Black market (un taxed ) cigarettes have been a source of terrorist funding in several other cases.
Why did the Prosecutor ask about Hamas ? was it just the first terror group he thought of or  (more likely) do they have further information that was felt they did not need to use ?

It 6-4 and pick'em Tom, but if they did have it, they should have used it. The judge can only rule on what is proven (not conjectured) in his court room. I think he did the right thing based on the very limited info we have. Of course tommorow the crazy bastard will blow up the Empire State Building and I'll be eating my words, but we are not a country that does (or shouldn't) jail people on suspicion.
FQ13

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