[Ppnews] Al-Arian In Deportation Hold After Release for Contempt

[Political Prisoner News]

Al-Arian In Deportation Hold After Release for Contempt

By <http://www.nysun.com/authors/Josh+Gerstein>JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff 
Reporter of the Sun | July 10, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/national/al-arian-in-deportation-hold-after-release/81624/

A federal judge is ordering a prominent Palestinian Arab activist, 
<http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Sami+Al-Arian>Sami 
Al-Arian, released pending a trial on criminal contempt charges, but 
she has refused to block immigration authorities from detaining 
Al-Arian as a prelude to his deportation.

The upshot of the ruling from Judge Leonie Brinkema at a bail hearing 
at 
<http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Alexandria+%28Virginia%29>Alexandria, 
Va. this morning seemed to be that Al-Arian will stay behind bars, at 
least for now. However, the decision puts the government in the odd 
posture of detaining a man for a deportation authorities have no 
immediate intention of carrying out.

"It was a very good day," one of Al-Arian's lawyers, Jonathan Turley, 
said in a brief telephone interview after the court session. "She 
agreed with us that he's not a flight risk and not a danger to the 
community, that that was not a barrier to bail."

Mr. Turley said Judge Brinkema also said she was picking up "strange 
signals" from the case and she warned the government that it should 
not be using the contempt charges to delay Al-Arian's deportation.

The prosecutor at today's hearing, Gordon Kromberg, declined to 
comment for this article.

Under a plea agreement which resolved a terrorism-support case 
against Al-Arian in 2006, the government agreed to deport him 
expeditiously once he finished serving his criminal sentence in that 
case. An earlier trial in that case, held in federal court in Tampa, 
Fla., resulted in some acquittals for Al-Arian while jurors could not 
reach a unanimous verdict on other charges.

After pleading guilty, Al-Arian was called to appear before grand 
juries in Virginia investigating a web of Islamic charities, 
including a think tank, the International Institute for Islamic 
Thought. Al-Arian refused to testify before the panels, asserting 
that his plea agreement precluded the government from forcing his 
cooperation. However, two appeals courts have rejected that argument. 
Al-Arian spent more than a year in jail for civil contempt for 
defying the grand juries. His 57-month criminal sentence was put on 
hold repeatedly while he was jailed for contempt, but the criminal 
sentence ran out in April.

Al-Arian has insisted he is being persecuted by Justice Department 
officials sore over the disappointing result of the Tampa trial. Last 
year, he went on a hunger strike for 57 days and lost over 40 pounds, 
according to his supporters.

Mr. Turley said Mr. Kromberg acknowledged that some of the questions 
the government wants to ask Al-Arian pertain to issues raised at his 
Florida trial. Al-Arian's lawyers fear such a tactic would be an 
attempt to retry the Florida case by eliciting denials that could 
become the basis for perjury charges.

A trial on the criminal contempt charges is set for August 13. The 
law sets no specific penalty for a conviction. In theory, Al-Arian 
could face life in prison, or even the death penalty.

Al-Arian, who was born in Kuwait, is a former computer science 
professor at the University of South Florida who was a prominent 
figure in Arab and Muslim political efforts in America, before he was 
indicted in 2002 and accused of acting as a top leader of Palestinian 
Islamic Jihad.

Al-Arian has been in government custody since he was indicted six 
years ago. His wife and some of his children recently moved to Egypt. 
That country has agreed to accept him if the deportation goes 
forward, Mr. Turley said.




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