Ashraf Nubani was the attorney for the Global Relief Foundation (GRF), which the U.S. government shut down in December 2001 because of the organization’s ties to terrorism. He later became GRF co-founder Rabih Haddad’s personal immigration attorney.

In an October 4, 2001 report published by the Chicago Tribune, Nubani “blamed the federal scrutiny and media coverage [of GRF] on ‘Zionist forces in the U.S.’ ” With regard to the Global Relief Foundation’s sale of audio tapes made by terrorist leader Abdullah Azzam, Nubani stated, “In times like this, things that normally would be innocent will be viewed in the worst possible way.”

Nubani’s legal services were not just limited to the GRF and its related individuals.  He was also the attorney for Ihab Mohamed Ali, who was charged with lying to a grand jury by saying that he had never met or spoken to Osama bin Laden, and by claiming that he had never sent messages to others about the al Qaeda kingpin. Nubani was also charged with criminal contempt for refusing to complete his testimony. In addition, prosecutors alleged that Ali “served as an American link in al Qaeda, and that he tried to keep his activities secret by using [various] code names.”

Moreover, Nubani has provided legal services to the Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi. Al-Amoudi, the former director of the American Muslim Council, was said to have “violated U.S. law by accepting . . . $10,700 from the Libyan mission to the United Nations and by failing to disclose numerous trips to Libya on his passport.” Alamoudi has, in the past, also publicly pledged his support for the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah.

Another dubious individual to whom Nubani has given his legal services is Majed Hajbeh. Hajbeh was “convicted in 1999 for a series of bomb attacks in Jordan.”  Furthermore, the U.S. government believes that Hajbeh has close ties to an agent for Osama bin Laden.

Nubani has also represented Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, whom Nubani calls “a purely political person.” A statement Nubani issued on behalf of Marzook asserts that Marzook: blamed his incarceration on America’s “ill treatment of Palestinians;” attributed his being “characterized as a terrorist” to “the U.S. relationship to Israel and the influence of Zionist lobbies;” and described “Hamas’ struggle” as “legitimate.”

In addition to his work as an attorney, Ashraf Nubani is also a writer. In the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Nubani authored a ‘puff piece’ about Abdelhaleem Ashqar, likening Ashqar to a “hero.” A 2002 ruling by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of Washington, D.C. asserted that Ashqar had acted as a “senior Hamas activist” while at the University of Mississippi.

In 1993 Ashqar incorporated the Al Aqsa Educational Fund, an Islamic ‘charity’ in Oxford. The fund is suspected of funneling money to Hamas during the 1990s.