Vol. 73/No. 4 February 2, 2009
Brinkema denied a series of motions by al-Arians attorneys aimed at getting the charges against him dismissed and ending government persecution of the activist.
Al-Arian was a professor of computer science at the University of South Florida in Tampa when he was arrested in February 2003 on frame-up charges of terrorism.
Despite being found innocent on the terrorism charges by a federal jury in December 2005, which also voted 10-2 in favor of his innocence on other charges, al-Arian was returned to prison. He later agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad in return for immunity from further prosecution and agreement to be deported from the United States.
Despite the plea agreement, al-Arian remained in prison. In April 2008 he was granted bail, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement then incarcerated him. He was finally released in early September.
On June 26, government prosecutors charged al-Arian with criminal contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating a Virginia-based Islamic organization. These are the charges that Brinkema refused to dismiss at the January 16 hearing.
While allowing the governments case to go forward, Brinkema denied a prosecution motion for an anonymous jury, in which the identity of jurors is not made public. She also ruled that the jury will be given at least some of the background on the case, including that al-Arian was acquitted of the previous charge of terrorism.
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