Abelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar (Arabic: عبد الحليم الأشقر[1]) is a Palestinian Muslim activist who was an assistant professor of business at Howard University.
He was convicted of criminal contempt and obstruction of justice for refusal to testify before a grand jury in a trial related to the funding of Hamas by donors in the United States, and was sentenced in November 2007 to 135 months in prison.
[4] Ashqar's student visa expired in 1998 and he applied for political asylum arguing that he would be threatened by Israel should he return home.
[5] On 5 September 2003, Ashqar who was in a federal custody for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Chicago, started a second hunger strike.
[10] In 2005, while facing federal charges, Ashqar ran in the elections for the President of the Palestinian National Authority,[11] running in absentia from his home in Virginia.
[15] Ashqar was arrested in 2004 on federal charges alleging that he was one of three people assisting in the recruitment and fund-raising efforts for Hamas in the United States over the course of 15 years.
[16][17] The arrest was regarded as part of a Bush administration effort to block funding for Hamas, which had been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization in 1995.
[19] According to court documents, investigators discovered “a treasure trove of Hamas-related documents,” at Ashqar's home, including details about recent Hamas attacks on Israeli soldiers, the minutes of confidential meetings of Hamas meetings; and a fax from Falls Church, Virginia businessman Mousa Abu Marzook, requesting that Ashqar arrange the transfer of $40,000 to a Palestinian activist.