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New Jersey Man Sentenced to 17 Months in Prison for Providing Material Support and Resources to Hizballah
LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for
the Southern District of New York, announced that SALEH ELAHWAL,
56, of Matawan, New Jersey, was sentenced today to 17 months in
prison for providing material support to Hizballah, a Foreign
Terrorist Organization. The sentence was imposed in Manhattan
federal court by United States District Judge RICHARD M. BERMAN,
before whom ELAHWAL previously pleaded guilty. According to the
criminal Complaint, Count Two of the Superseding Indictment, to
which ELAHWAL pleaded guilty, and statements made during
proceedings in Manhattan federal court:
Hizballah ("Party of God") is an organization based in
Lebanon whose stated mission is the establishment of a
fundamentalist Islamic state and the destruction of the State of
Israel. Hizballah regards the United States as its enemy in this
struggle. Since its inception in approximately 1982, Hizballah
has pursued its mission through, among other things, attacks on
civilian targets. Hizballah has been designated by the Secretary
of State as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially
Designated Global Terrorist. Al-Manar ("the Beacon") is a
Lebanon-based television station operated by Hizballah and
designed to cultivate support for Hizballah’s activities and
mission. Al-Manar has been named a Specially Designated Global
Terrorist since March 2006.
From approximately 2005 through 2006, ELAHWAL, through
a Brooklyn and Staten Island-based satellite transmission company
he helped operate, HDTV Limited, provided satellite transmission
services to al-Manar, in exchange for thousands of dollars in
payments from al-Manar. ELAHWAL provided these services knowing
that al-Manar is Hizballah’s television station.
In addition to the prison term, Judge BERMAN ordered
ELAHWAL to pay a fine of $7500, serve 200 hours of community
service, and 3 years of supervised release.
In April 2009, co-defendant JAVED IQBAL, who also
pleaded guilty to providing material support to Hizballah, was
sentenced to 69 months in prison.
Mr. DASSIN praised the work of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's Joint Terrorist Task Force in conducting the
investigation.
Assistant United States Attorneys ERIC SNYDER and DAVID
LEIBOWITZ are in charge of the prosecution.
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