In a high-profile case, on Tuesday a federal jury in Tampa, Florida, found Prof. Sami al-Arian, a former professor at the University of South Florida, not guilty of funding a banned Islamist group. -- Reuters called the decision "a verdict likely to be seen as a stiff blow to the U.S. government in its attempts to prosecute terror suspects." -- Three co-defendants "were also cleared of most of the charges against them," Robert Green reported Tuesday. -- "The jury was deadlocked on several other charges and U.S. District Judge James Moody declared a mistrial on those counts." -- The jury deliberated for 13 days after a 5-month trial in which 70 witnesses testified and "thousands of hours of wiretapped telephone calls, intercepted e-mails, and faxes and bank records gathered over a decade" were introduced. -- Prof. al-Arian, a Palestinian who was a tenured professor of computer science when he was arrested in February 2003, denied the charges and none of the defendants testified or called witnesses....
Politics
PROFESSOR ACQUITTED OF FUNDING ISLAMIST GROUP
By Robert Green
Reuters
December 6, 2005
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051206/pl_nm/crime_professor_dc
TAMPA, Florida -- A federal jury on Tuesday found a former Florida professor not guilty of funding a banned Islamist group in a verdict likely to be seen as a stiff blow to the U.S. government in its attempts to prosecute terror suspects.
The jury in Tampa, Florida, took 13 days to deliver its verdict against Sami al-Arian, who along with three co-defendants was accused of raising money for Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.
The panel, delivering verdicts six months to the day after the trial started, found al-Arian not guilty of conspiracy to murder, providing material support to a terrorist group and obstruction of justice.
The other men, Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatem Fariz, and Ghassan Ballut, were also cleared of most of the charges against them.
The jury was deadlocked on several other charges and U.S. District Judge James Moody declared a mistrial on those counts.
Prosecutors will have to decide whether to retry the men on the undecided charges.
The four were arrested in February 2003 and accused of providing money and support to Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group the United States designated as a terrorist organization in 1997.
The U.S. government blames Islamic Jihad for killing more than 100 people in Israel, including three Americans.
When the defendants were arrested, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said al-Arian was Islamic Jihad's North American leader. The defendants denied the charges and said any money they sent to the group was for charitable activities.
The prosecutors' case during the five-month trial in Tampa was based mostly on thousands of hours of wiretapped telephone calls, intercepted e-mails, and faxes and bank records gathered over a decade.
Federal prosecutors said al-Arian, a former professor at the University of South Florida, ran an Islamic Jihad cell in Tampa with the help of the other three men.
There were over 70 witnesses called in the trial, which began June 6. None of the defendants testified in his own defense and Al-Arian and Ballut did not call any witnesses.
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