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Saudi Computer Student in Idaho Acquitted
Handing the government a stinging defeat, a jury acquitted a Saudi graduate student on Thursday of charges that he had used his computer expertise to help Muslim terrorists raise money and recruit followers. .... The case against Mr. Al-Hussayen, 34, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at the University of Idaho, was seen as an important test of a provision of a new antiterrorism law that makes it a crime to provide expert advice or assistance to terrorists. Mr. Al-Hussayen set up and ran Web sites that prosecutors said were used to recruit terrorists, raise money and disseminate inflammatory rhetoric. They said the sites included religious edicts justifying suicide bombings and an invitation to contribute money to the militant Palestinian organization Hamas.Mr. Nevin said Mr. Al-Hussayen had little to do with creating the material posted, which he argued was protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of expression and was not intended to raise money or recruit extremists. "There was a lack of hard evidence," said one juror, John Steger. "There was no clear-cut evidence that said he was a terrorist, so it was all on inference." Mr. Al-Hussayen was acquitted on all three terrorism charges, as well as one count of making a false statement and two counts of visa fraud. Jurors could not reach verdicts on three false-statement counts and five visa-fraud counts, and a mistrial was declared on those charges. United States Attorney Tom Moss said it would be a week before a decision was made on whether to retry Mr. Al-Hussayen on those eight counts. .... He still faces deportation. .... His wife and their children returned to Saudi Arabia this year rather than fight deportation. In retrospect, we should have simply deported him instead of trying him. We ought to deport people much more often. We ought to deport this guy now and forever. Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-06-11 |
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