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<h1><b>Judge calls off
hearing</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090425/FOREIGN/704249811/1135" eudora="autourl">
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090425/FOREIGN/704249811/1135<br>
</a>Rebecca Carroll
<ul>
<li>Last Updated: April 25. 2009 12:45AM UAE / April 24. 2009 8:45PM GMT
</ul><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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”.<br><br>
She promised to issue a written ruling “in the near future”.<br><br>
Outside the justice department in Washington, DC, about two dozen
supporters of al Arian, including his family, campaigned yesterday for
his release. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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”.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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”.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
“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”.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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