NationStates Jolt Archive


## Not Guilty Verdicts in Florida Terror Trial Are Setback for Bush

OceanDrive3
07-12-2005, 07:08
December 7, 2005

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 - In a major defeat for law enforcement officials, a jury in Florida failed to return guilty verdicts Tuesday on any of 51 criminal counts against a former Florida professor and three co-defendants accused of operating a North American front for Palestinian terrorists.

The former professor, Sami al-Arian, a fiery advocate for Palestinian causes who became a lightning rod for criticism nationwide over his vocal anti-Israeli stances, was found not guilty on eight criminal counts related to terrorist support, perjury and immigration violations.

The jury deadlocked on the remaining nine counts against him after deliberating for 13 days, and it did not return any guilty verdicts against the three other defendants in the case.

"This was a political prosecution from the start, and I think the jury realized that," Linda Moreno, one of Mr. Arian's defense lawyers, said in a telephone interview. "They looked over at Sami al-Arian; they saw a man who had taken unpopular positions on issues thousands of miles away, but they realized he wasn't a terrorist. The truth is a powerful thing."

Federal officials in Washington expressed surprise at the verdict in a case they had pursued for years.

The trial, lasting more than five months, hinged on the question of whether Mr. Arian's years of work in the Tampa area in support of Palestinian independence crossed the threshold from protected free speech and political advocacy to illegal support for terrorists.

Prosecutors, who had been building a case against Mr. Arian for 10 years, relied on some 20,000 hours of taped conversations culled from wiretaps on Mr. Arian and his associates. Officials said he had helped finance and direct terrorist attacks in Israel...
OceanDrive3
07-12-2005, 07:11
Tue Dec 6, 6:54 PM ET

MIAMI (AFP) - A US jury in Florida acquitted Arab-American Sami Al-Arian on terrorism charges, but he could be retried as the judge declared a mistrial after the panel remained deadlocked on some of the charges.

The decision was a major setback for the US administration, as the case, built largely on wiretaps and seized documents, was seen as a test of the controversial Patriot Act that gave authorities wider surveillance powers in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Al-Arian, 47, was found not guilty of conspiring to "murder or maim people" outside the United States and of providing material support to a "terrorist organization" -- the Palestinian Islamic Jihad that has carried out suicide attacks against Israel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051206/ts_alt_afp/usattackspalestinian_051206235419;_ylt=AgtVCF_meQqZUbrlj9DIVOOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-
The South Islands
07-12-2005, 07:15
Whoops, back to the drawing board!
Domici
07-12-2005, 07:15
December 7, 2005

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 - In a major defeat for law enforcement officials, a jury in Florida failed to return guilty verdicts Tuesday on any of 51 criminal counts against a former Florida professor and three co-defendants accused of operating a North American front for Palestinian terrorists.

What retarded medium presented this? It's a major defeat for law enforcement that people can be found not guilty? Why don't we just forget about all this trial business and send the accused directly to the chair. It will be a masterstroke for law and order in our fair land.

And people still think we have liberal-dominated media. :rolleyes:
Pepe Dominguez
07-12-2005, 07:17
Let's hope they get their act together before the re-trial..
OceanDrive3
07-12-2005, 13:55
Let's hope they get their act together before the re-trial..waste of my income tax money...
Deep Kimchi
07-12-2005, 15:20
It has less to do with the validity of the Patriot Act and more to do with an ill-prepared prosecution. They were supposed to prove that the money that was raised was used by Islamic Jihad to support terrorism. They obviously failed to do that.

However, nothing stopped the government from wiretapping every minute of this guy's life, investigating all his email, bank accounts, etc. And nothing to stop it from continuing.

BTW, they are supposed to be holding a hearing to revoke his American citizenship, because he apparently lied on the forms - it's apparently a revocation of citizenship AND deportation hearing rolled into one.