The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
March 12, 2009

Opening Door to Dismissal, Judge Faults Prosecutors on Al-Arian Plea Deal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------



A federal judge has paved the way to throwing out charges against the
Palestinian professor Sami Al-Arian. In a new ruling, Judge Leonie
Brinkema says Al-Arian may have been duped into thinking his plea
bargain protected him from future prosecutions. Brinkema has given
Al-Arian’s lawyers ten days to ask for the case’s dismissal. Al-Arian
was released in September after over five years in prison but still
faces charges for refusing to testify before a grand jury about a
cluster of Muslim organizations in northern Virginia. He was initially
accused of being involved in the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but a
Florida jury failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the
seventeen charges against him. Still, Al-Arian chose jail time rather
than undergo a second trial after prosecutors refiled charges.
Al-Arian’s defense lawyers argue prosecutors have violated his plea deal
by subsequently charging him for refusing to testify in cases that have
nothing to do with him.



.