Nation in brief: Two acquitted of racketeering
Two men accused of furnishing money and fresh recruits to the militant Palestinian group Hamas were acquitted Thursday of racketeering but convicted on lesser charges.
The two men beamed broadly at the split verdict and defense attorneys immediately declared victory in the three-month trial that the government had described as a major component in its war on terrorism.
“We are not terrorists,” former grocer Muhammad Salah told reporters as he left the courthouse with his 8-year-old son, Ibrahim, on his shoulders. Salah, 53, and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48, a one-time assistant business professor at Howard University in Washington, had been accused of laundering money for Hamas terrorists fighting to topple the Israeli government.
Salah was convicted of obstruction of justice for providing false answers to questions in a civil suit filed by parents of an American teenager who was shot and killed by Hamas terrorists at an Israeli bus stop.
Ashqar was convicted of obstruction of justice and criminal contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury after receiving immunity from prosecution for anything that he might have revealed.
LAS VEGAS
Priest arrested, accused of assault
A Roman Catholic priest accused of beating, groping and choking a soloist at his Las Vegas church was arrested Thursday in Arizona, Las Vegas police said.
The Rev. George Chaanine, 52, was taken into custody in Apache Junction, about 30 miles east of Phoenix, according to a statement.
Chaanine had been a fugitive since the alleged assault on Jan. 26 at the Our Lady of Las Vegas parish office. A judge issued a felony warrant Tuesday charging him with attempted murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and battery with a deadly weapon.
According to a Las Vegas police report obtained Thursday by the Associated Press, the woman, who works at the office, told investigators she was at her desk when Chaanine broke a bottle of wine over her head, grabbed her hair and dragged her toward his office.
She fought back, lost consciousness and awoke with Chaanine groping her, police said. She fought until Chaanine grabbed her throat, police said. The woman told detectives her attacker stopped, muttered that he was going to kill himself, told the woman to wait 15 minutes and left the office, according to the report.
NEWARK, N.J.
Doctor stole cadaver hand
A young doctor pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing a hand from a cadaver when he was a medical student, then giving it to a stripper he had befriended.
Ahmed Rashed, 26, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of third-degree theft, said Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Judson Hamlin.
Rashed gave the hand to Linda Kay, 31, during one of his visits to the club where she worked. He got to know the exotic dancer while he was a first-year medical student at the school in 2002. She wanted a cadaver’s hand, authorities said, and he complied.
Authorities said the hand was found in a jar on Kay’s dresser. Friends have said she called it “Freddy.”