Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace
January 7, 2006
Govt to retry Dr. Al-Arian/ Statements of Support

TAMPA- During a status hearing yesterday in Dr. Sami Al-Arian’s case,
prosecutors indicated that they are leaning towards retrying Dr. Al-
Arian and co-defendant Hatim Fariz on charges on which the jury was
hung. After the hearing, over 100 people rallied in support of Dr. Al-
Arian outside of the federal courthouse in downtown Tampa. Leaders of
major American Muslim organizations and representatives from several
churches, and civil- and human rights groups held a press conference
in which they called for Dr. Al-Arian’s immediate release following
his acquittal last month.

Retrying Dr. Al-Arian and Fariz would be further waste of taxpayer
money. According to press accounts, the government has already spent
$50 million prosecuting Dr. Al-Arian. Furthermore, in a compelling
motion to dismiss the remaining charges against Dr. Al-Arian, his
attorneys Bill Moffitt and Linda Moreno wrote that the government no
longer has a viable case. “With these acquittals, the government
cannot justify retrying them on another conspiracy count –
racketeering – because it is no longer linked to any crimes of
violence,” according to the St. Petersburg Times.

Moreover, after rendering their verdicts, a number of jurors told
reporters that, far from being evenly split, a majority, ten jurors,
wanted to fully acquit Dr. Al-Arian and Fariz. Indeed, one juror
hugged Moreno after the verdict and said he was sorry that the jury
was unable to acquit Dr. Al-Arian of the remaining charges. The two
jurors who favored conviction were readers of the Tampa Tribune,
which has carried out a ten-year smear campaign against Dr. Al-Arian.
More significantly, those jurors refused to explain their votes,
according to media accounts.

Not a single guilty verdict was returned after a six-month trial that
included more than 80 witnesses and 400 transcripts of intercepted
phone conversations and faxes. The jurors said the government failed
to present any evidence to prove that Dr. Al-Arian and his co-
defendants (two of whom were fully acquitted) committed any illegal
acts. Continuing with this prosecution would demonstrate disrespect
for and an inability to accept the jury’s decision, reached after 13
days of deliberations.

Continuing a political prosecution of Dr. Al-Arian would reflect
poorly on an administration that is seeking to win the hearts and
minds of Muslims in the U.S. and abroad. A recent article in TIME
magazine, citing a former FBI supervisor, revealed the political
nature of Dr. Al-Arian’s trial: “In late 2002 word came down from
Ashcroft to build an al-Arian indictment. `We were in shock, but
those were our marching orders,’ says the supervisor, who felt that
the Justice Department was rushing to indict before it had really
appraised the evidence.”

Respecting the court’s verdict and releasing Dr. Al-Arian would send
a powerful message to the American Muslim community that the Justice
Department is not targeting its members and violating their civil
rights.

“The jury heard all the evidence of the prosecution — they have
voted not guilty on the major charges,” Rev. Warren Clark, a member
of the Tampa Bay Friends of Human Rights, said yesterday. “Respect
for human rights, not in some other country but right here in our own
community, demands that the court release Dr. Al-Arian immediately.”

According to a news report, “Ahmed Younis, national director of the
Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the Al-Arian case thrust America
back into the court of public opinion. Younis said `a tsunami came
upon the Muslim community since 9/11,’ the date of the terror attacks
on the United States.”

Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation Executive Director Mahdi
Bray reminded the group that a jury of American citizens had
unanimously agreed that, despite the government’s charges, that a
Muslim exercising his First Amendment rights is not a crime, and that
Dr. Al-Arian and his co-defendants should be released immediately.

“Dr. Al-Arian and his family have suffered enough,” said
Bray. “Muslims are asking ‘what price, freedom’?”

“Our government, under the guise of national security, has engaged in
a criminal fishing expedition within the Muslim community. And it is
not only against Dr. Al-Arian, but the 1,100 Muslims wrongly detained
after 9-11, the Detroit Five, attorney Brandon Mayfield, Muslim
Chaplain James Yee, Abu-Ali, and many more.”

Among the speakers at yesterday’s press conference were Dr. Agha
Saeed (American Muslim Alliance); Nihad Awad (Council on American-
Islamic Relations); Ahmed Bedier (Tampa CAIR); Ahmed Younis (Muslim
Public Affairs Council); Mahdi Bray (Muslim American Society Freedom
Foundation); Bishop Willard Lee (New Smyrna Full Gospel Center); Rev.
Warren Clark (First United Church of Tampa); Rev. Vicki Walker (Hyde
Park United Methodist Church); and Bill Moffitt and Linda Moreno
(attorneys for Dr. Al-Arian). A statement was read on behalf of the
National Council of Churches.

See below:

A St. Petersburg Times report on yesterday’s status conference.

II.Statements in support of Dr. Al-Arian that were released yesterday
by the National Lawyers Guild and the Minaret of Freedom Institute, a
Washington D.C.-based Islamic organization.

ACTION ALERT:

We ask all conscientious and justice-seeking individuals to call,
email and write Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and chief
prosecutor Paul Perez asking them to drop all charges and free Dr. Al-
Arian.

E-MAIL, CALL and WRITE Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales

E-MAIL: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

PHONE: 202-514-2001 and 202-353-1555

MAIL: U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Paul Perez, Chief Prosecutor. Emails can be sent to
steve.cole@usdoj.gov
Ask that it be forwarded to Paul Perez.

I. Case will go on, prosecutor says
By Meg Laughlin and Jennifer Liberto

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/01/07/Tampabay/Case_will_go_on__pros.shtml

TAMPA – The big question: Will Sami Al-Arian and Hatem Fariz face a
second trial?

That’s what U.S. District Judge James S. Moody asked prosecutor Terry
Zitek at a status hearing in federal court, Friday.

Zitek’s response: “I think it would be correct to assume we’re going
to continue.”

Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor, and Fariz,
along with Ghassan Ballut and Sameeh Hammoudeh, were co-defendants in
a six-month federal trial in which they were charged with raising
money for the violent acts of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Israel.

Ballut and Hammoudeh were acquitted on all charges.

Al-Arian was acquitted on eight counts, with nine others ending in a
mistrial when the jurors could not agree on a verdict. Fariz was
acquitted on 25 counts, with mistrials on eight others.

It is these mistrial counts that are at issue now.

Zitek said the government “wants to streamline the case and look at
what counts to retry.”

But, outside the courtroom, Al-Arian’s co-counsel William Moffitt
told the Times: “I don’t think you should make too much of it. There
are things I’m not prepared to talk about that may make a
difference.”

Fariz’s attorney Kevin Beck explained: “We’re trying to negotiate.”

Negotiations could mean that Al-Arian, 47, and Fariz, 32, will plead
guilty to lesser counts, which could result in Al-Arian’s deportation
and possible jail-time for Fariz, who is a U.S. citizen. The Kuwaiti-
born Al-Arian has been in prison for almost three years as a suspect.
Fariz has been out on bond.

Jurors told the Times they voted 10-2 for acquittal for Al-Arian and
Fariz on most of the hung counts.

The counts that resulted in the 33 combined acquittals for the two
men appear to pose a problem for the government’s case because Al-
Arian and Fariz were found innocent of conspiring to murder, maim or
injure people in Israel. They were also found innocent of providing
material support to a terrorist organization.

The defense has argued in a motion that, with these acquittals, the
government cannot justify retrying them on another conspiracy count –
racketeering – because it is no longer linked to any crimes of
violence.

The same problem may affect efforts to retry them on lesser counts,
including money laundering.

“We hope the prosecution has read the accounts of jurors and
understands why they did what they did. Jurors found no criminal
conduct, and I have yet to hear from any juror who found a criminal
agreement,” said Linda Moreno, co-counsel for Al-Arian.

With Al-Arian, the greatest disagreement among jurors came when they
voted on whether he had committed fraud by failing to disclose
associations on immigration forms. Jurors said seven of them voted
for acquittal on this charge and five voted for conviction, resulting
in a hung jury on this count.

Because this charge is not reliant on a connection to furthering
violence in Israel, it could be the basis of a conviction that would
be part of a plea deal for Al-Arian.

After the hearing, about 75 supporters of Al-Arian and Fariz gathered
outside the federal court house, carrying American flags, a 7-foot
papier-mache Lady Justice and signs that read “The Jury Has Spoken”
and “All Religions Believe in Justice.”

As a bone-chilling wind whipped through the breezeway on the north
side of the courthouse, the metal scales of Lady Justice spun wildly
through the air, forcing supporters to duck to keep from being struck
by the statue.

A handful of Muslim and other church leaders also flew in from
Washington to protest Al-Arian’s three-year detention, most of it in
solitary confinement.

“We believe it’s inhumane to keep this man in jail for no reason but
for who he is,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations in Washington.

Beck, Fariz’s attorney, said he expected another status hearing next
week to discuss whether the hung counts would be retried.