Washington ? A federal judge on Thursday rebuffed a Dallas-area Muslim charity’s bid to force the government to unfreeze its assets, ruling that federal officials acted appropriately in concluding the organization was closely linked to the Hamas terrorist group.

In a 59-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler denied the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development’s request for a preliminary injunction that would require the Bush administration to return the $4 million to $5 million seized last year from the Richardson, Tex.-based organization.

She also swept aside virtually all of Holy Land’s claims that the government trampled on the group’s constitutional and religious freedom rights by raiding its offices in Texas, California, Illinois and New Jersey last December and seizing its assets.

Holy Land representatives, who have long denied affiliation with Hamas, said they would appeal.

Judge Kessler concluded that the 3,130-page record that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control compiled before moving against Holy Land based largely on a nearly nine-year FBI investigation and Israeli intelligence provides “ample support” for its conclusion that Holy Land acts “for or on behalf of” Hamas.