Many Arab Americans continue to see groups like Hezbollah and Hamas as freedom fighters. But the U.S. State Department continues to list them as terrorist organizations. The result has been that some supporters in the U.S. have gone off to prison. Here’s the latest case.
New Jersey Star Ledger Staff
A Brooklyn dentist who lives in New Jersey was sentenced to 17 months in prison yesterday for aiding the terrorist group Hezbollah by broadcasting its Lebanese television station to satellite users in the metropolitan area.
Saleh Elahwal, 56, of Matawan had admitted in December that he and another man accepted some $112,000 from Hezbollah’s television station, al Manar, to provide its satellite broadcasts through a company they operated, Brooklyn-based HDTV Limited, from September 2005 through August 2006.
He was sentenced yesterday to 17 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman for providing material support to Hezbollah, which the U.S. government regards as a terrorist organization.
