A Buena Park man arrested this summer in an FBI investigation of an Islamic charity accused of funneling millions to the Palestinian group Hamas will remain jailed without bond because he is a national security threat, an immigration law judge has ruled.
Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, 44, a former fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, was arrested on an immigration law violation. Department of Homeland Security authorities said he had been in the United States illegally on a student visa issued 25 years ago.
U.S. Immigration Judge D.D. Sitgraves said in a 42-page ruling released Monday that although Hamdan was not charged with terrorism, he aided and abetted terrorism through his fundraiser role.
Hamdan, a Muslim born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, remains jailed while the foundation's president, chairman and director of endowments, who were charged with terrorism-related crimes in an indictment unsealed in Dallas, were ordered freed on their own recognizance in August. The federal judge who freed them ruled the government failed to prove they were a threat to national security and flight risks.
The foundation's attorney, John Boyd, said those indicted in the case were freed without bond but that travel restrictions were imposed. He said the charity did not support terrorism.
In Hamdan's case, Sitgraves said he did not qualify for release because the Department of Homeland Security met the U.S.A. Patriot Act requirement of showing reasonable grounds to believe an immigrant has ties to terrorism.
There were "reasonable grounds to believe [Hamdan] is a danger to the security of the United States" because of his association with the Islamic charity, she wrote.
Attorney Marc Van Der Hout blasted Sitgraves' ruling and filed a motion to remove her from the case as the government continues with its attempt to deport Hamdan. In a six-page brief filed Wednesday, Van Der Hout said Sitgraves had prejudged Hamdan and could not be fair and impartial in a deportation hearing.
"Only another judge ... who has not prejudged this case nor imported any extrajudicial information" can issue a fair ruling at a deportation hearing, Van Der Hout argued. The attorney pointed to Sitgraves' finding that Hamdan is also a member of the Islamic Assn. for Palestine, a group she said would have "pre-designation in the future" as a terrorist organization.
