Associated Press
By Vickie Chachere

October 31, 2003

TAMPA, Fla. — A prominent Washington attorney taking on the defense of a former professor indicted on charges he raised money for Islamic terrorists said Friday his first challenge to the government is to justify the conditions under which his client is being held.

William B. Moffitt said the U.S. Justice Department’s insistence that Sami Al-Arian be held under strict confinement at a federal prison northeast of Tampa is violating Al-Arian’s right to assist in his own defense. A hearing will be held Nov. 7 in U.S. District Court in Tampa on the matter.

Moffitt said Al-Arian, who faces a 50-count indictment that he used an academic think tank and a charity at the University of South Florida as fronts for financing the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, is being treated as if he has already been convicted of a crime. Al- Arian is housed in the same unit as inmates who have assaulted corrections officers or other prisoners and are considered too dangerous to be held elsewhere.

Al-Arian should not be held in any different manner than any other person accused of a crime, Moffitt said he intends to argue. Al- Arian is being held without bail while he awaits a January 2005 trial.

“Is this community so prejudiced and biased against Sami Al-Arian that they think that is appropriate?” Moffitt said in a news conference held after briefly meeting with Al-Arian at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Sumter County.

Moffitt, joined by co-counsel and Tampa attorney Linda Moreno, scattered a bag of stubby pencils onto a table to illustrate to reporters how prison officials even control the most basic tools Al- Arian needs to prepare his own defense.

“This man is presumed innocent,” Moffitt said. “Is this community willing to give him that presumption?”

Al-Arian, who for the past several months has represented himself after firing his court-appointed attorneys, has failed in his challenge of the government’s insistence that he be held at Coleman.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa declined to comment in response to Moffitt. The government has previously cited security concerns for keeping Al-Arian at a prison instead of the Hillsborough County Jail, where most area federal prisoners awaiting trial are kept.

Being held with Al-Arian at Coleman is Sameeh Hammoudeh. Two others charged in the case, Ghassan Zayed Ballut and Hatim Naji Fariz, have been released on bond.

Four other men named in the indictment are not in custody, including Ramadan Shallah, the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Moffitt joined the case this week after Al-Arian’s family and supporters were able to raise enough money for a retainer. Moffitt declined to discuss the finances; Al-Arian’s family had previously said it would cost as much as $1.5 million for Moffitt’s services.

At least two groups are helping raise money for Al-Arian’s defense: the National Liberty Fund in Washington and the Muslim Civil Rights Center in Hickory Hills, Ill.

Ahmad Tansheet, community outreach coordinator for the Muslim Civil Rights Center, said a fund-raiser held in Chicago on Oct. 19 raised about $7,000 for Al-Arian’s defense. Telephone calls to the National Liberty Fund were not returned Friday.

Tansheet said raising money for Al-Arian has been difficult, despite his long standing as a community activist, because people are afraid to donate to him and draw the attention of federal investigators.

Moffitt is the former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a legal commentator on national news programs. Among the big cases he has handled is the 1995 trial of William Aramony, the former president of United Way who was charged with defrauding the charity of more than $1 million.

More recently, Moffitt represented Agus Budiman, an Indonesian man living in Virginia who federal agents said had links to the Sept. 11 hijackers. Budiman denied any connection and in May 2002 was convicted of document fraud.

The judge gave Budiman a sentence equal to the seven months he’d spent behind bars awaiting trial and Budiman was deported. At the time, Moffitt said his client was a victim of guilt by association and said the government and criticized the government’s prosecution.