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Al-Arian Faces Charges Of Criminal Contempt

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The Associated Press

Published: June 27, 2008

RICHMOND, Va. - A former Tampa professor who pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a Palestinian terrorist group was charged Thursday with refusing to testify before a grand jury in a related investigation.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., indicted Sami al-Arian on two counts of criminal contempt.

Arraignment is set for 10 a.m. Monday.

Al-Arian has completed his nearly five-year prison term but remains in custody because he has refused to testify before a grand jury investigating Muslim charities and businesses. His attorneys had been negotiating his deportation, but the indictment puts that on hold.

Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida computer science professor, was taken into federal custody in 2003. Prosecutors alleged he was a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which the United States calls a terrorist organization, but his 2005 trial in Florida ended in acquittal on some charges and a hung jury on others.

The government decided to retry him, and he agreed to a plea bargain on lesser charges. He was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.

Critics say the case reflects overzealous prosecution of Muslim-Americans.

"After failing to convict Dr. al-Arian before a Florida jury, the government has continued to use any and all means to prolong his confinement," said al-Arian's attorney, Jonathan Turley.

He said the government has used similar tactics to confine others acquitted of terrorism-related charges.

The indictment alleges that al-Arian knowingly disobeyed a judge's order to testify before the grand jury. Al-Arian has claimed that terms of his plea agreement exempt him from testifying, but two judges have rejected that claim.

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