Associated Press
3-20-07
Family of fasting inmate asks for hunger strike to stop
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SAMUEL SPIES

RALEIGH, N.C. – A former University of South Florida professor
is “very, very weak” and cold after spending two months on a hunger
strike that his family believes threatens his life, his wife said
Tuesday.

Sami al-Arian, 49, a Palestinian who taught computer science at the
university, stopped eating Jan. 22 to protest a judge’s decision to
hold him indefinitely after he refused to testify before a Virginia
grand jury.

Since then, al-Arian has lost 54 pounds, said his wife Nahla al-
Arian, who has visited her husband at the Federal Medical Facility
in Butner, most recently Monday.

“When I first saw him on Saturday I cried so hard because I couldn’t
believe he could look like this, no muscles, nothing,” she
said. “He’s very weak, very very weak. He lost a lot of weight. He
was cold all the time, shivering, because his body temperature is
very low.”

Authorities at the federal facility about 30 miles north of Raleigh
have told Sami al-Arian they will force-feed him if his condition
worsens, his lawyer said Tuesday, but his wife said that hasn’t
occurred.

When al-Arian began his water-only diet he weighed 203 pounds, and
now weighs 149, she said.

Sami al-Arian’s family fears for his life, said Nahla al-Arian, and
is trying to convince him to stop the hunger strike. He has so far
refused.

“We need him, we need his love, we need his presence in our lives.
Even if he were in jail we still need him,” Nahla al-Arian said.

During a six-month trial in 2005, prosecutors labeled al-Arian a
leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which the United States calls a
foreign terrorist organization. The trial ended in an acquittal on
some counts and a hung jury on others.

But in a plea bargain last April, al-Arian admitted he conspired to
aid individuals associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and was
sentenced to nearly five years in prison, although al-Arian received
credit for the time he had already served. Al-Arian and his lawyers
contend the plea deal also exempts him from testifying before the
Alexandria, Va. grand jury, which is investigating a cluster of
Islamic charities in northern Virginia.

Federal prison authorities declined to discuss al-Arian’s health
condition.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va. is
expected to review the judge’s decision to hold al-Arian in civil
contempt this week, his wife said.

END.