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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Florida Professor Acquitted on Some Charges |
| 2005-12-06 |
| Just in from Fox TAMPA, Fla. — A former Florida professor was acquitted on a key charge Tuesday that he helped lead a Palestinian terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel. In one of the biggest courtroom tests yet of the Patriot Act's expanded search and surveillance powers, the jury acquitted Sami Al-Arian of eight of the 17 counts against him, including a charge of conspiring to maim and murder people overseas. The jury deadlocked on the others including charges he aided terrorists. Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida computer engineering professor, wept after the verdicts and his attorney, Linda Moreno hugged him. He will go back to jail until prosecutors decide whether retry him on the deadlocked counts. Co-defendants Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut were acquitted of all charges against them. Another, Hatem Naji Fariz, was found not guilty of 24 counts and jurors deadlocked on the remaining eight. |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #5 Cromotch has it right. If your take is that the law enforcement model doesn't work... then why is this really that surprising and shockworthy? LGF reacted a lot worse to this, with fratricidal remarks between the "sky is falling" types and some of the more sensible guys -- at least one of them a (former?) deputy district attorney. I'd rather take notice of how many are going down outside of this... |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2005-12-06 21:36 |
| #4 Let the rat run. He may very well lead us to other more dangerous muzzie rats. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-12-06 19:14 |
| #3 he has no job - deport his ass |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-12-06 18:06 |
| #2 They'll try him again and he'll be acquited and then it will be a more expensive unmitigated disaster. This is an unmitigated disaster. The law enforcement model has failed. |
| Posted by: Cromotch Hupereger5247 2005-12-06 17:23 |
| #1 Note the mistrial on 8 counts, which means they can retry Sami on those counts (also note that he's still in prison). Not good, but not an unmitigated disaster. |
| Posted by: Jonathan 2005-12-06 17:17 |