Jailed Hamas Leader Seeks Deal With U.S.

Lawyers for Mousa abu Marzuk, political leader of the militant Islamic group Hamas, submitted a new compromise plan to the Clinton Administration on Wednesday designed to allow him to withdraw his application to enter the United States and never return.

The offer interrupted the start of an exclusionary hearing at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Abu Marzuk, a Palestinian who has lived in Northern Virginia for several years, is being detained. He was stopped July 25 at New York’s Kennedy International Airport trying to re-enter the country after spending five months in the United Arab Emirates. The Immigration and Naturalization Service said in court papers that he appears to have engaged in terrorist activity and should be deported.

Israel has put out a warrant for the Hamas leader’s arrest, accusing him of conspiracy to commit murder, and is seeking to extradite him.

Details of Abu Marzuk’s new offer were not made public, although it apparently has elements similar to one that was earlier rejected by the INS. Nevertheless, the new offer prompted a one-hour conference between government lawyers and Abu Marzuk attorney Stanley L. Cohen, and led Immigration Court Judge Alan L. Page to adjourn Abu Marzuk’s hearing until Tuesday.

Cohen said: “An offer has been made. The U.S. government is considering it.” He denied that his client is guilty of any terrorist acts.

Abu Marzuk’s previous offer called for him to withdraw his application to enter the United States, waive any future right to come into the country and surrender his permanent residence visa. In return, Marzuk insisted on the right to return to the UAE or any other country of his choice and to deny he was involved in terrorist acts.

INS officials said the offer had been rejected because, as one put it, “It does not address the issue that is the basis of our request for exclusion--namely that of involvement in terrorism.”

Israeli officials claim they have intelligence information implicating Abu Marzuk in fund raising for Hamas, as well as in drafting and arranging training for group members who went on to commit murder. They have not yet spelled out which attacks. An Israeli Justice Ministry spokeswoman said Abu Marzuk, as head of the Hamas political bureau, sets policy on important issues, including terrorism.

Between 1990 and 1993, Abu Marzuk dispatched emissaries to the West Bank and Gaza Strip “for the purpose of arranging Hamas military operations,” and transferred funds to the area to buy weapons later used in lethal attacks, the spokeswoman asserted.

The Israeli Justice Ministry also contended that Abu Marzuk dispatched an emissary to the occupied territories in 1992 to give about $100,000 to a leading activist in the West Bank town of Hebron to create a military apparatus. In 1993, Abu Marzuk sent the same emissary with $300,000 to finance Hamas activities. Israel claims some of the money was used to buy weapons.

In a telephone interview from Tehran, Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Iran, said Abu Marzuk was not involved in any Hamas attacks on Israeli targets. “Those things are planned and undertaken by people inside the occupied territories, not by members outside,” Hamdan asserted.

In Washington, the United Assn. for Studies and Research, where Abu Marzuk briefly worked during his decade-long stay in the United States, issued a statement claiming he was “widely regarded as a political moderate who favors dialogue and reasonable compromise.”

Under the U.S. extradition treaty with Israel, the Jewish state has 60 days in which to make a formal extradition request. A U.S. district court judge then would have to consider the request. In the end, no deportation could take place without the acquiescence of the secretary of state.

Goldman reported from New York and Wright from Washington.

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In some 1997 stories, and stories from 2001 onward, Mousa abu Marzuk is referred to as Mousa abu Marzook.

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