The US authorities released Mufid Abdel Qader Meshaal, the half-brother of the head of the Hamas movement abroad, Khaled Meshaal, after 20 years in prison on charges of working with the "Holy Land" organization.

Mufid Mashal spent about 20 years in American prisons on charges of working with the Holy Land Organization, which is accused of financing the Hamas movement. An American court had issued the ruling, in the context of other sentences of dozens of years in prison for 4 other Americans of Palestinian origin, including Muhammad al-Zein, a relative of Hamas Deputy Chairman Musa Abu Marzouk.

The defendants are members of the banned Holy Land Foundation, which is accused of supporting Hamas. The foundation, based in a Dallas suburb, was one of the largest Islamic charities in the United States before the government shut it down in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The group said its activities focused on providing aid and disaster relief to Palestinian refugees, and prosecutors said the Holy Land Foundation funneled money to Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in 1995.