A federal appeals court on Thursday reinstated the convictions of three men charged with lying to authorities to obtain tax-exempt status for a terror-linked charity.

A federal jury in January 2008 found Emadeddin Muntasser along with associates Muhammad Mubayyid and Samir al-Monla guilty of deceiving the government to grant tax-exempt status to the now-defunct Boston-based charity, Care international. But a federal judge overturned the convictions on the main conspiracy charge of hiding the charity's pro-jihadist activities, saying evidence did not justify the verdict.

Both the government and the defendants appealed the verdict and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an opinion that reversed the district court's acquittal and reinstated the jury's verdict.

The defendants are all senior officials of Care International, an Islamist charity founded by Muntasser in 1993 in Boston. Mubayyid was the charity's former treasurer and al-Monla served as its president from 1996 to 1998. The charity ceased to operate in 2003. Although the charity ostensibly sought to provide humanitarian aid to refugees and war victims, it in fact served as a branch office for the Al-Kifah Refugee Center in Boston.

Al-Kifah was established as the U.S.-affiliate of the Mekhtab-e-Khademat (MeK) in the mid-1980s by Osama bin Laden's spiritual mentor Sheik Abdallah Azzam. The MeK - or Afghan Service Bureau - served as a clearinghouse for international volunteers seeking to wage Islamic jihad against Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan.

Care's fundraising literature glorified jihad and martyrdom. Its ultra-militant newsletter contained violent exhortations for jihad: "The one who leaves his home for nothing but to make jihad in the path of Allah and believes in His words is in the custody of Allah until he returns home or is killed and therefore goes to heaven."