A Muslim charity and five of its former leaders have been convicted of funding the Palestinian militant group Hamas, designated a terrorist group in the US.

Jurors reached the guilty verdict after eight days of deliberations in the retrial of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The group - once the largest US Muslim charity - was accused of giving more than $12m (г8m) to support Hamas. It was the largest terrorism financing trial since the 9/11 attacks. The former head of the charity, Ghassan Elashi, and the former chief executive, Shukri Abu-Baker, were convicted of 69 counts including money laundering and tax fraud. Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh were convicted on three counts of conspiracy, and Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted on one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organisation. The Holy Land group was convicted on 32 counts. A sentencing date has yet to be announced.

Frozen assets

Hamas was designated by the US as a terrorist group in 1995, making contributions to the group illegal. The prosecution argued that Hamas controlled the charities to which $12.4m was sent between 1995 and 2001. The indictment against the group said it sponsored orphans and families in the West Bank and Gaza whose relatives had died or been imprisoned as a result of Hamas attacks on Israel. The Texas-based charity was shut down and had its assets frozen in 2001, as part of the clampdown that followed the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington. The charity said it ran a legitimate operation helping Muslim families. Holy Land's supporters accused the US government of politicising the case as part of its so-called "war on terror". A previous trial against Holy Land ended last year in some confusion with the jury deadlocked, prompting a mistrial verdict and a subsequent retrial.