February 20, 2006

St. Petersburg Times

By Rick Gershman

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Protesters at the Orient Road Jail see no reason why the former professor should remain in jail or be retried.

TAMPA – Three years after his arrest, and more than two months after a federal trial returned no convictions, Sami Al-Arian remains behind bars.

Sunday, at least, he had plenty of visitors.

More than 100 people protested Al-Arian’s continued confinement in an afternoon rally outside Hillsborough County’s Orient Road Jail.

The rally was convened to marshal support for Al-Arian’s release, said Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Today is the third anniversary of Al-Arian’s arrest.

Several civil rights advocates spoke to the assembly, and a few also visited with Al-Arian in his cell, Bedier said.

In December, jurors acquitted the former University of South Florida professor on eight of 17 charges related to financing and promoting Middle East terrorism.

The jury hung on the remaining nine counts, with 10 jurors favoring total acquittal on all but an immigration charge.

Prosecutors are weighing whether to retry Al-Arian and a co- defendant, Hatem Fariz. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida recently urged the government not to retry Al-Arian.

On Sunday, supporters held signs with messages such as “McCarthyism Is Alive And Well In Tampa, FL” and “If They Won’t Free Him, What Was The Trial For?”

Before speakers took to the microphone, folksingers performed songs including Peace Train and We Shall Overcome , adding the lyric “We shall free Sami someday” to the latter.

Civil rights advocate Eric Vickers told supporters Al-Arian’s situation “is the test of democracy right before us in the 21st century. If this is the America that we know and love, this man must be set free.”

Hyde Park United Methodist Church Rev. Vicki Walker told the crowd about her friendship with Al-Arian’s wife, Nahla.

“I felt her pain, and I realized that as long as Sami is not free, she is not free,” Walker said. “And if my friend is not free, then I am not free.”

–Rick Gershman can be reached at rgershman@sptimes.com or 813 226- 3431.