The Justice Department unsealed an indictment Friday accusing a senior Hamas leader and two others of a 15-year racketeering conspiracy that raised millions of dollars for the militant group, which is labeled a terrorist organization by the United States for carrying out bombings, kidnappings and other attacks in Israel. The indictment, handed up in Chicago, includes the deputy chief of Hamas' political wing, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, and a former Howard University professor, Abelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar of Fairfax County, Va. Ashqar, 46, and a third defendant, Muhammad Hamid Khalil Salah, 51, of suburban Chicago, were arrested Thursday night; Marzook, who was expelled from the United States in 1997, is believed to be living in Syria. The case is the latest in a series of aggressive moves by U.S. prosecutors against alleged Hamas supporters with ties to the United States. Just last month, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging the nation's largest Muslim charity and seven of its top officials with funneling money to the group, which is also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement. The charges also signal an unusual strategy by the Justice Department, which has labeled Hamas a "criminal enterprise" and which is attempting to use racketeering and conspiracy statutes more commonly applied to drug gangs and Mafia figures. "The individuals named in this indictment are alleged to have played a substantial role in financing and supporting international terrorism," Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a Washington news conference. "They are alleged to be material supporters of a foreign terrorist organization, taking advantage of the freedoms of an open society to foster and finance acts of terror." But defense lawyers and relatives of the defendants decried the indictments as politically motivated, arguing that they stem from U.S. support of Israel and are based on dated allegations that have dogged all three men for years. Much of the activity outlined in the indictment happened before President Clinton designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist group in 1995, and the three defendants have been the focus of FBI intelligence and criminal investigations for at least a decade. Stanley Cohen, Marzook's attorney, called the charges "categorical rubbish" and said the indictment amounted to "a Republican National Committee press release." "There is nothing new here," Cohen said. "All of this stuff is anywhere from 10 to 15 years old. . . . Everything that is in the four corners of this indictment the government has had for years." The new indictment alleges that, beginning in 1988, the three men conspired with 20 others to launder millions in support of Hamas, and that the money was used to pay for crimes in Israel.