TAMPA: Former college professor Sami Al-Arian will appeal a judge s decision to sentence him to additional prison time for his role in providing support to a Palestinian terrorist group, federal court records show. Attorney C. Peter Erlinder filed the notice of appeal to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. A federal jury last year acquitted Al-Arian of eight counts of aiding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad while deadlocking on nine other counts. Instead of facing a second trial on the remaining counts, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to one count of providing services to members of the PIJ, labeled a terrorist group by the U.S. government. U.S. District Judge James Moody sentenced him on May 1 to four years and nine months in prison, the most allowed under the terms of a plea agreement that also calls for his deportation. The sentence means Al-Arian, 48, who has already spent more than three years in custody, must serve about a year and a half more before he is deported. Calls to Erlinder, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, were not immediately returned Thursday. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents, Al-Arian was reared mostly in Egypt before coming to the United States 30 years ago. AP
