Mohammad El Halabi, the former head of the Gaza office of the US-based World Vision Foundation, was arrested in 2016 after being accused by Israel’s Shin Bet security service of transferring tens of millions of dollars to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gauze. Strip. He has been held in custody ever since. Both he and World Vision have denied any wrongdoing. On Wednesday – more than 160 court hearings and six years later – a district court in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba found Halabi guilty of all but one of the counts of terrorism, including involvement in a terrorist organization, terrorist financing. activities, possession of “transmitted information to the enemy”, and possession of a weapon. The sentence is expected in the coming weeks. World Vision said Halabi would appeal the decision. Following Halabi’s arrest, his employer, independent auditors and the Australian Government, a major donor to World Vision, found no evidence of wrongdoing or money laundering. The charity said the alleged $ 50 million diversion [£41m] far exceeded its operating budget in Gaza for the past decade, which totaled $ 22.5 million [£19m]. An independent forensic examination by international accounting firm Deloitte and DLA Piper, a global law firm, found that instead of helping Hamas, Halabi had worked hard to prevent the Islamist group from falling. Much of the evidence against Halabi has been kept secret over the years because of “security concerns” cited by Israeli prosecutors. UN human rights experts, diplomats and NGOs have repeatedly called on Israel to provide Halabi with immediate access to a fair trial or to release him. The day before the verdict, the UN Office of Human Rights expressed “serious concerns” about the process, in particular about the “lack of evidence”. Palestinians demonstrate in Gaza City in solidarity with Mohamed El Halabi. Photo: APAImages / Rex / Shutterstock “In our view, there were irregularities in the proceedings” and that the verdict was based on “lack of substantive and publicly available information”, said Sharon Marshall, a World Vision spokeswoman who closely followed the case. “We support Mohamed’s intention to appeal against the decision and call for a fair and transparent appeals process based on the facts of the case,” he said. Halabi’s lawyer, Maher Hanna, called the decision “completely political”, saying it had “nothing to do with the facts”. The court ruling did not describe the diversion of any financial aid to Hamas, but rejected the charity’s argument that it had firm controls that would have prevented it. He also referred to an alleged Halabi confession that has not been made public. Hanna said the confession was based on notes made by an investigator, who spoke to another detainee who heard her and should not have been accepted as evidence as she was given pressure. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST According to the Addameer detainees’ rights group, “many Palestinian detainees plead guilty to crimes they did not commit and waive their right to continue their trials”, often due to a lack of faith in Israeli civilian and military justice systems for a fair trial. . With the legal backing of World Vision, however, Halabi was able to obtain what his father, Khalil, described as an “initial stance”, refusing to admit to crimes he says he did not commit and avoiding further damage to World Vision’s reputation. The charity suspended operations in Gaza following Halabi’s arrest, cutting off psychosocial support to 40,000 children, as well as providing medical supplies and food relief. The 15-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip has severely restricted the freedom of movement of the population of 2 million people in the enclave and led them to struggle with a damaged health care system, constant power outages and very little clean water. Israel says it supports the work of aid organizations, but is forced to take steps to prevent donor funds from falling into the hands of armed groups such as Hamas, which do not recognize its existence and attack its citizens.
