
A good day for the Rumpled Academic
Al-Arian pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.” He should not be free today.
“Al-Arian released after 5 years, awaits 2nd trial,” from AP, September 2:
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) “” A former Florida professor once accused of being a leading Palestinian terrorist has been released for the first time in more than five years.
Immigration authorities released Sami Al-Arian on Tuesday. They were holding him for refusing to testify before a grand jury about a cluster of Muslim organizations in northern Virginia.
The former University of South Florida professor has been in immigration custody since finishing a sentence on separate charges. He had been accused of being a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but he was acquitted on many of those charges and a jury deadlocked on others. He eventually pleaded guilty to lesser charges….