Al-Arian Trial Stays in Florida
Charles Johnson
Mon May 23, 2005 at 3:00 pm PDT • Views: 184
The Sami Al-Arian trial will not be moved out of Florida, and is set to begin June 6 in Tampa: U.S. judge refuses to move professor’s terror trial. (Hat tip: SoCalJustice.)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday rejected a request to move out of Florida the trial of a former professor accused of helping Palestinian group Islamic Jihad carry out deadly attacks in Israel.
Sami al-Arian and three co-defendants, Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatem Fariz and Ghassan Ballut, were arrested in February 2003 on charges that they raised money and provided support for the outlawed group.
The U.S. government lists Islamic Jihad as a terrorist organization and says it is responsible for killing over 100 people in Israel, including two Americans.
The defendants said they did not think they could get a fair trial in Florida because of extensive local media coverage of the case and bias against Arabs and Muslims.
Frank says: