Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor, has been acquitted on eight of seventeen charges, with the jury deadlocked on the
other nine charges. Al-Arian and three others were charged with various counts related to the support and funding of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Two defendants were totally acquitted and the other was split between acquittal and no verdicts. Al-Arian was the center of an academic freedom
controversy when he was originally indicted.
news.tbo.com
Once billed as a major strike in the war on terrorism, the case against Sami Al-Arian crumbled Tuesday when jurors rejected federal charges that
Al-Arian and three co-defendants operated a North American cell for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Tears of joy at the defense table met with blank expressions of shock among prosecutors after jurors deadlocked on nine counts against Al-Arian and
found him not guilty of conspiring to commit murder abroad, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
"This ranks as one of the most significant defeats for the U.S. government, for the Justice Department since 9/11," said Jonathan Turley, a law
professor at George Washington University Law School who has represented other terrorism defendants."The Justice Department spent copious amounts of
money and time to make the case against Al-Arian.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
This result was a major embarrassment for the U.S. Justice Department. Despite a mass of evidence deemed strong enough to indict, the jury didn't
make the connections to actual terrorist activity. Without such connections, the issue was more about free speech. In the future, perhaps the Justice
Department will have to rely more on financial freezes and other methods to cut funding for terrorist organizations, rather than the legal system.
Related News Links:
news.tbo.com
www.abcactionnews.com
news.yahoo.com
Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
NEWS: Trial of Sami Al-Arian: Bungled or Cover-Up You Decide
[edit on 12/9/05 by FredT]