Al-Arian To Serve Prison Time

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 1, 2006

Read Messages From Sami Al-Arian | Read Judge Moody's Comments

TAMPA - Calling Sami Al-Arian a “master manipulator,” U.S. District Court Judge James Moody ignored the government’s recommendation for a light sentence and handed down the maximum penalty - a 57-month term to former USF professor.

Before being sentenced, Al-Arian said he takes full responsibility for his actions and praised the jury for their courage.

Al-Arian, 48, was sentenced to four years and nine months, but he will get credit for the three years and three months he has already served while being held before and after his trial. His lawyer, Linda Moreno, asked the judge to release her client now, but the judge refused and called Al-Arian “a master manipulator.”

Al-Arian signed a plea agreement April 14 in which he admitted providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a State Department-designated terrorist group responsible for hundreds of deaths in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The former University of South Florida computer engineering professor took the plea deal despite a jury failing to convict him of any of the 17 charges against him after a six-month trial last year. His family said he took the deal to get out of jail and end their suffering.

It was not immediately clear where Al-Arian will be sent. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents, he was reared mostly in Egypt before coming to the United States 30 years ago. He has been jailed since his arrest in February 2003.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.