[Ppnews] Judge calls off Al-Arian Hearing

[Political Prisoner News]

Judge calls off hearing

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090425/FOREIGN/704249811/1135
Rebecca Carroll
    * Last Updated: April 25. 2009 12:45AM UAE / April 24. 2009 8:45PM GMT

WASHINGTON // A US judge unexpectedly cancelled a 
hearing scheduled for yesterday in the case of 
Sami al Arian, a former professor and Palestinian 
activist once accused of running the North 
American operations of a terrorist group and now 
facing criminal charges for refusing to testify in separate investigations.

Al Arian faces criminal contempt charges for 
refusing to testify in two grand jury 
investigations in Northern Virginia. His lawyers 
say the charges should be dropped because forcing 
him to testify violated a 2006 plea bargain he 
struck with prosecutors in Florida.

Leonie Brinkema, a federal judge, last month 
suggested the deal may not have been in good 
faith if prosecutors were already planning to 
subpoena al Arian, who believed his plea would lead to swift deportation.

On Thursday, Judge Brinkema cancelled the hearing 
at which she was expected to rule on al Arian’s 
petition to dismiss the case, saying she had all 
the evidence she needed and that “additional oral 
argument will not aid the decisional process”.

She promised to issue a written ruling “in the near future”.

Outside the justice department in Washington, DC, 
about two dozen supporters of al Arian, including 
his family, campaigned yesterday for his release.

Al Arian was born in Kuwait to Palestinian 
refugees and has lived in the United States since 
1975. He was a tenured professor of computer 
science at the University of South Florida in 
Tampa at the time of his much-publicised arrest 
in Feb 2003 on terrorism charges, stemming from 
his alleged links to Palestinian Islamic Jihad 
(PIJ), a group the United States designates a terrorist organisation.

An ardent activist for Palestinian independence 
who had campaigned for George W Bush during the 
2000 election and been invited to the White House 
in 2001, al Arian had by the time of his arrest 
already defended a statement in 1991 in which he 
called for “death to Israel”, saying he meant an 
end to Israeli occupation, not the murder of civilians.

The US government further alleged that he had 
praised the acts of suicide bombers and condemned 
the United States. Still, a jury in 2005 
acquitted al Arian of eight terrorism-related 
charges and remained deadlocked on the other 
nine, with 10 of the 12 jurors favouring 
acquittal on all charges, according to local media.

Al Arian agreed to a plea bargain in 2006 
because, he has said, he wanted to avoid a 
lengthy and costly retrial. He pleaded guilty to 
one count of conspiring to assist the PIJ and the 
prosecution agreed to recommend the minimum 
sentence – the time he had already served in 
prison – followed by a speedy deportation. The 
sentencing judge, James S Moody Jr, however, 
ordered the maximum sentence of 57 months, less 
the three years he had already served and called him a “master manipulator”.

Mr Moody mocked the defendant’s claim of 
charitable work: “Your only connection to widows 
and orphans is that you create them, even among 
the Palestinians,” he is quoted as saying in a 
transcript of the sentencing hearing.

Over the next two years al Arian was summoned by 
Gordon Kromberg, a US assistant attorney, to 
testify in three grand juries investigating 
terrorism ties to Muslim groups in Northern 
Virginia. He refused in all cases on the advice of his lawyers.

Al Arian has been under house arrest since 
September, when he was released from jail after 
five-and-half years, much of which he spent in 
solitary confinement under conditions Amnesty 
International has called “beyond what were 
necessary” and “indicative of a pattern of abuse 
based on his political or ethnic profile”.

For some of his supporters, the case exemplifies 
post-September 11 antiterrorism efforts that 
undermined themselves by going too far. For 
others, it is proof of an inherent, anti-Muslim bias in the US judicial system.

“I know what’s happened to him has happened to a 
lot of people and could happen to any one of us,” 
said Mel Underbakke, a former colleague of al 
Arian’s at the University of south Florida, 
describing al Arian’s years of imprisonment and 
legal battles as “the denial of rights that are 
guaranteed by our constitution”.

Lawyers for al Arian would not comment, citing 
court rules. A spokesman for the US attorney’s 
office also would not comment on the case.




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