Al-Arian is accused of trying to fix the finances of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in 1994, but the terrorist organization's former treasurer would not cooperate.

Muhammed Tasir Hassan Al-Khatib had $350,000 in Islamic Jihad money and refused to turn it over, according to transcripts of wiretapped telephone conversations read to jurors.

Al-Arian, who by then was signing letters as the organization's secretary, is accused of plotting with Bashir Nafi, another member of the Islamic Jihad's shura council, its board of directors, to get the money from Al-Khatib.

Nafi, in London, and Al-Arian, in Tampa, talked by phone about getting it through force, although they were not specific about what that would mean. Al-Arian also talked about forging Al-Khatib's signature and taking it out of a bank account surreptitiously.

Al-Khatib was Al-Arian's brother-in-law, and they had a joint bank account in Tampa. Al-Arian, according to conversation transcripts and the testimony of FBI Agent Kerry Myers, mistakenly had closed the account, and he needed it.

He hoped he could transfer money from Al-Khatib's bank overseas into the Tampa account because the Tampa account had Al-Khatib's name on it, too, according to the prosecution. Then he would withdraw the money.

Al-Arian needed Al-Khatib's signature. Nafi did not have any examples. Al-Arian called NationsBank, now Bank of America, and tried to reopen the joint account. Tapes of the calls were played in Al-Arian's trial Tuesday. Banker Sandy Lynch told Al-Arian the closed account could not be reopened. She also turned down Al-Arian's request for a copy of the signature card, saying she did not see why he needed it.

The Islamic Jihad's financial problems were intense. Al-Arian had persuaded the shura council to approve his reform plan by a majority vote.

Under the plan, Al-Arian sent a fax on Feb. 17, 1994, asking for an accounting of all the Islamic Jihad's assets and debt.

The officers, including Al- Arian, even talked about a possible merger with Hamas, a much larger Palestinian terrorist organization.

Although involvement in the Islamic Jihad did not become illegal in the United States until 1995, prosecutors are presenting evidence of the earlier activity under the theory it shows an ongoing crime.

Transcripts also indicate Islamic Jihad officials were concerned that money they sent to the occupied territories of Israel to be distributed to the families of Islamic Jihad prisoners and martyrs was not getting to the right people. The organization established what Myers described as amounting to a direct deposit arrangement, eliminating the middlemen.

Transcripts read Tuesday also show knowledge of the Islamic Jihad's violent activities, according to Agent Myers, who explained the conversations to jurors.

In the Feb. 14, 1994, conversation, Nafi told Al-Arian that Fathi Shikaki, the Islamic Jihad's general secretary, ``sent me the news, ... but it shouldn't be said on the phone.''

Myers said this was a reference to a fax that Al-Arian received the previous day.

It was a news account of a Feb. 9, 1994, attack by Islamic Jihad associates who kidnapped and killed a 23-year- old taxi driver.

Al-Arian is standing trial with three others on charges they helped organize and finance the Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks and suicide bombings in the Middle East.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837.