Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor whose trial last year failed to convict him of charges connected with Palestinian terrorism, will be deported, the Associated Press is reporting. It was not immediately clear to which country he would be sent.
Mr. Al-Arian, who was fired in 2003 from a tenured post in computer engineering at South Florida, was accused of conspiring with a group called Palestinian Islamic Jihad to incite suicide bombings in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. After five months of trial and 13 days of jury deliberations, he was acquitted on eight charges. The jury deadlocked on nine others, and until today it was unclear if federal prosecutors would retry him on those charges (The Chronicle, December 7, 2005).
The jury’s verdict was a stunning defeat for the prosecution, which built its case on years of secret surveillance made admissible in court by provisions in the USA Patriot Act. However, even prosecutors admitted that their voluminous evidence against Mr. Al-Arian was largely circumstantial.
Given that prominent defeat, it’s not surprising that federal officials waited until the Friday before a holiday weekend to announce their plans, at a time as well that attention is focused on another major terrorism trial—of Zacarias Moussaoui, a September 11 conspirator. Jurors in that case are currently hearing arguments over whether Mr. Moussaoui should be executed.
Look for a more complete article about the Al-Arian case on Monday on this Web site.
