Man in middle of terrorism case is held in Hampton Roads jail

PORTSMOUTH

A former University of South Florida professor once suspected of being a leading terrorism financier is now in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, on a hunger strike and suicide watch.

Sami Al-Arian, 50, had hoped to be deported after serving a federal prison term for a terrorism-related conviction but remains mired in a dispute with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria. Prosecutors want him to testify before a grand jury, but he has refused to obey court orders to do so.

Al-Arian was transferred to the regional jail in Portsmouth April 15 after spending a few days in the Northern Neck Regional Jail. Before that he had been in federal custody since 2003.

He has been on a hunger strike since March 3 in protest of his detention. His lawyers said he is being held in less-than-favorable conditions. He's being kept in solitary confinement, has been denied visitors and had his clothes and bedding taken away, they said.

Jail officials said that's only partly true. They said they are following proper procedures in dealing with someone on a hunger strike.

"He seems fine. He's walking around. He called his attorney and he had a visit with family this Sunday," said Master Jail Officer P. Ellis.

"He's being treated fair," said Capt. Eugene Taylor III, a jail spokesman.

Any inmate on a hunger strike is housed in a one-person cell in the jail's medical unit, and each is given a jail-issued jumpsuit to wear, he said. It also is routine to keep someone on a hunger strike on round-the-clock watch.

Al-Arian has had no solid food since his arrival last week, but he has consumed water, Gator-ade and cranberry and fruit juice, Ellis said.

Al-Arian's case, according to his lawyers, became an embarrassment for the U.S. government's war on terrorism after a Florida jury did not convict him on any terrorism-related charges.

He was charged in a 53-count indictment with being the chief North American financial supporter of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is accused by the U.S. government of being a terrorist group responsible for more than 100 deaths in Israel through suicide bombings and rocket attacks.

The jury in December 2005 found Al-Arian not guilty of conspiring to commit murder abroad, providing support for terrorists, money-laundering and related charges, and it deadlocked on nine other charges.

Instead of retrying Al-Arian, the government proposed a plea deal which called for him to admit his support for Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al-Arian agreed, with the condition that he not have to cooperate with the government in any investigation and that he be deported immediately. He entered his plea, but at sentencing in May 2006 the judge in Tampa gave him 57 months in prison, the maximum for the one count.

Prosecutors in Alexandria later issued a subpoena to Al-Arian ordering him to testify before a grand jury hearing evidence against the Herndon-based International Institute of Islamic Thought, or IIIT, according to court records.

James Rybicki, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, declined to comment and refused to confirm or deny any investigation into IIIT.

Federal agents have filed court papers in Alexandria describing alleged financing links between IIIT and terrorist groups in the Middle East, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Both groups seek the destruction of Israel.

Al-Arian has refused to cooperate with the federal prosecutors, despite being granted immunity by a federal judge. His repeated refusals to testify before the grand jury led the judge to cite him in contempt and keep him in custody in the United States.

One of Al-Arian's lawyers, C. Peter Erlinder, a law professor at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn., called the government's move unprecedented.

"Everything the government has agreed to has not happened," he said Tuesday.

Federal judges at the district and appeals level ruled that Al-Arian's plea deal, which excluded any requirement that he cooperate with the government, doesn't mean he can avoid a grand jury subpoena.

Erlinder said he's not sure of Al-Arian's fate. Federal prosecutors could indict him on criminal contempt charges, or the government could simply deport him, he said.

Steven Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, an organization that tracks terror groups, said he finds it suspicious that Al-Arian doesn't want to testify.

"If he's got no information, he can say that," Emerson said.

Al-Arian, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian who moved to the United States as a teenager, was working as a computer science professor at the Tampa university when he was arrested in 2003. He continues to deny any links to terrorist groups. His lawyers say that he pleaded guilty in order to be removed from the country quickly.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com