Unindicted co-conspirators

Josh Gerstein reports in today’s New York Sun on the government’s naming of unindicted co-conspirators in the pending prosecution of the defunct Islamic Holy Land Foundation:

Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas.
Prosecutors applied the label of “unindicted co-conspirator” to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
While the foundation was charged in the case, which was filed in 2004, none of the other groups was. However, the co-conspirator designation could be a blow to the credibility of the national Islamic organizations, which often work hand-in-hand with government officials engaged in outreach to the Muslim community.
A court filing by the government last week listed the three prominent groups among about 300 individuals or entities named as co-conspirators. The document gave scant details, but prosecutors described CAIR as a present or past member of “the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and/or its organizations.” The government listed the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust as “entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.”

As Gerstein notes, the designation of parties as unindicted co-conspirators is the predicate to an exception to the hearsay rule, allowing the introduction of evidence against defendants that might not otherwise be admissible. Whether the designation is proper is an issue that will have to be resolved by the trial court.
To comment on this post, go here.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses