A Palestinian American man who was convicted and imprisoned in 2008 for his work with the charity Holy Land Foundation has been released from federal prison. Mufid Abdulqader, one of the so-called Holy Land 5, was released to a halfway house Thursday. Abdulqader and his four co-defendants — Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain and Abdulrahman Odeh — received sentences of up to 65 years under the Bush administration, accused of working for a terrorist organization.

The Holy Land Foundation raised millions of dollars for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, making it a target for pro-Israel groups in the U.S. Their case was widely denounced as political persecution during the height of the so-called war on terror and shuttered what was once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. Shukri Abu Baker and Ghassan Elashi remain behind bars.