The consequences of 9/11 on the American judicial system become shockingly clear in the trial and sentencing of Palestinian Sami Al-Arian, reports Sharif Abdel-Kouddous from Washington A Palestinian professor and activist imprisoned in Florida for the past three years was recently sentenced to an additional 18 months behind bars by a United States federal judge. No jury has convicted him of a crime and there is no evidence linking him to an act of violence. The case of Sami Al-Arian has been one of the most closely watched and controversial post 9/11 prosecutions in the US. He was arrested in February 2003 and accused of being a leader of the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A computer science professor at the University of South Florida at the time, Al-Arian was a leading member of the Muslim community in south Florida and one of the most prominent Palestinian academics and activists in the United States. He was invited to the White House during both the Clinton and Bush administrations and he campaigned for George W Bush during the 2000 presidential election. In September 2001, Al-Arian was invited to be a guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" -- the ultra-conservative Fox News television show -- under the impression he was going to be discussing Arab-American reactions to the 11 September attacks. Instead, host Bill O'Reilly went on a tirade, accusing Al-Arian of supporting terrorism and digging up controversial comments he had made 15 years earlier. O'Reilly concluded by saying, "If I was the CIA, I'd follow you wherever you went." Beginning the next day, the University of South Florida was barraged by hundreds of threatening letters and emails. Thirty-six hours after the interview, the university put Al-Arian on paid leave. A year and a half later, on a February morning in 2003, officers from the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force raided Al-Arian's home and led him away in handcuffs in front of his wife and children. Former Attorney-General John Ashcroft held a press conference that day to personally announce the arrest. The Justice Department handed down a sweeping 50-count indictment against Al-Arian and seven other men, charging them with conspiracy to commit murder, giving material support to terrorists, extortion, perjury, and other offenses. At its core, the government alleged that Al-Arian used an Islamic academic think tank and a Palestinian charity to illegally funnel money to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, consequently leading to a series of suicide bombings that killed over 100 people in Israel and the Occupied Territories. All eight men faced a possible life sentence if convicted. As Al-Arian was being led to FBI headquarters in Tampa, he told reporters his arrest was "all about politics". The government's case against Al-Arian included 11 years of FBI investigations, tens of thousands of wiretaps and searches, three years of trial preparation by federal prosecutors and millions of dollars in costs. The trial was seen as one of the biggest courtroom tests of the search and surveillance powers granted under the Patriot Act. After five months of prosecution evidence, Al-Arian's defense attorneys were so convinced the government did not have a case that they rested without putting on a defense. "Because there is a document called the US Constitution -- unless we're about to repeal it -- it protects Al-Arian's right to speak, and the government has not proven that Al-Arian has done anything but speak," said Al-Arian's attorney William Moffitt. In the end, the jury failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the 53 criminal counts brought against Al-Arian and his co-defendants, in a major defeat for the prosecutors of the Bush administration. Al-Arian himself received 17 not-guilty verdicts -- eight acquittals and nine deadlocked counts. "Of course, we hate terrorism," one juror told the St Petersburg Times. "But the evidence making these guys terrorists just wasn't there." Al-Arian remained in prison as prosecutors decided whether to retry him on the hung charges. Four months after the verdict, Al-Arian signed a plea agreement to plead guilty to helping members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad with immigration and legal matters. The plea deal specifically avoided any admission of a connection to violence. But at sentencing earlier this month, US District Court Judge James Moody used language that ignored the basis of the jury's acquittal as well as the plea agreement. He said Al-Arian had helped create "widows and orphans" and told him, "Your children attend the finest universities this country has to offer while you raise money to blow up the children of others." Judge Moody ignored the recommendation of prosecutors and defense attorneys for a lower sentence and gave Al-Arian the maximum prison time possible under a plea deal -- 57 months followed by deportation. With credit for time served, Al-Arian will spend another 18 months behind bars. "The judge really went out on his own and ignored the jury," said Al-Arian's current attorney Linda Moreno. "He decided to base his sentencing on facts that were not proven and that were somewhat intemperate." One of the jurors in the trial expressed disappointment at the judge's words linking Al-Arian to violence. "Our judicial system has changed drastically since 9/11, and it's only human to confuse fact and emotion," the juror told the St Petersburg Times. It is not clear where the US government will deport Al-Arian who is a Palestinian born in Kuwait and raised mostly in Egypt. He has lived in the United States for 30 years holding permanent residency status. His five children were born in the US and are all American citizens. "We appeal to any country that's willing to take in a stateless Palestinian refugee to give him a home, give us a home," said Al-Arian's daughter, Laila. "One of the worst possible things that can happen to a family is to lose their father." It is unclear how the case of Sami Al-Arian will end. For the meantime, he remains a prisoner of the US government. The writer can be reached at [email protected]
