The partial verdicts were just announced on MSNBC. There are no print stories so far. The latest print story says that the jury was still deadlocked on two of the four charges. But, just now, after 13 days of deliberations, the jury returned “Not Guilty” verdicts on 8 on 17 counts, and deadlocked on the other charges. Update [2005-12-6 16:22:57 by susanhu]: CNN says Sami Al_Ariari will remain in jail while the federal government decides what to do next.
Here’s the latest print story with background on the famous case:
Al-Arian judge asks jurors whether they can still deliberate
By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer
TAMPA, Fla. — The judge in the terrorism conspiracy trial of former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian asked jurors Tuesday whether further deliberations were hopeless because they appeared deadlocked on some charges against two of the four defendants.
[…..]
The seven-men, five-woman jury deliberated for a 13th day Tuesday as it tries to decide if Al-Arian, 47, a former computer engineering professor, and three others raised money and conspired to support the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Prosecutors allege Al-Arian and co-defendants Sameeh Hammoudeh, Ghassan Zayed Ballut and Hatem Naji Fariz used an academic think tank, a Palestinian charity and school founded by Al-Arian in Tampa as fundraising fronts for the terrorist group responsible for hundreds of killings in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The indictment includes charges of operating a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to murder and maim people outside the United States, money-laundering, and providing material support to a terrorist group.
The case was built on hundreds of pages of transcripts of wiretapped phone calls and faxes, records of money moving through accounts, documents seized from the defendants’ homes and offices, and their own words on video. At times, the participants appeared to speak glowingly of the Palestinian “martyrs” who carried out suicide attacks.
The defendants argued that although they were vocal advocates in the United States for the Palestinian cause, prosecutors haven’t proven that they planned or knew about any violent acts. They say money they raised and sent to the Palestinian territories was for legitimate charities.
Al-Arian was born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents. Reared mostly in Egypt, he has been in the United States since 1975 and started teaching computer engineering at USF in 1986. He was fired after he was indicted in 2003. (Read all at the Herald-Tribune.)
Good news. Now, I wonder if he’ll be able to sue his former employer for firing him.
Was he tenured? Did he have a contract that prevented him from being fired “at will”?
I wonder how long the fed. government will take to keep him in jail.
I don’t recall his tenure status. That the federales are intent on keeping him in the slammer is a bit disquieting, to say the least.
Answer to the question about his tenure status here. Looks like he was a tenured prof.
He has many connections that will be embarrasing for the Bush admin to have to answer to. Below is just one example of many. Most of these connections are probably involved in some of Fitzgerald’s grand juries.
So, have they indicted anyone for supporting the Israeli terrorist war machine?
But they’re the good terrorists, unlike them Ay-rabs. 😉
Abramoff sponsored sniper schools to be used for that result. There are emails asking to run the sniper workshops again because previous ones were successful.
There were other similar funded projects.
Your tax dollars at work, and another roaring success in the War on Terror. While I’m sure prosecuting those who knowingly contribute money to Palestinian terrorist organizations is a worthy goal, it sounds like this was, at the least, a massive misallocation of our resources in light of the fact that, even if guilty (which clearly the jury wasn’t willing to find), these men were pretty small fish at best and didn’t represent a direct threat to any US citizens. I thought we were supposed to concentrating on threats to our homeland?
The Orlando Sentinel blog details
and
The Miami Herald reports
and
Also this about the atmosphere among the jury,
This case was billed as the ‘positive’ result of the Patriot Act…as in, a look, it’s working and we’re catching terrorists…only maybe not…apparently the jury system works and America came through. Now, will the feds re-file, don’t know. Will the feds or media explore the Grover Norquist connection? Don’t know. But the bottom line is, the Patriot Act didn’t work out the way they planned. I have no idea on the guilt or innocence of the accussed but the jury sent a message. Will the media listen? Doubtful. You can count on the right wingers going nuts tho.
to any of the US “facilities” that dot the globe.
And the jury, too, for that matter.