Breaking: Al-Arian Indicted for Contempt

Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 2:28:37 pm PDT

Just announced at the Investigative Project: Al-Arian Indicted for Contempt.

Convicted terrorist Sami Al-Arian has been indicted in Virginia on two counts of criminal contempt after refusing to testify before a federal grand jury despite a grant of immunity.

Al-Arian, who pled guilty in 2006 to conspiring to provide goods and services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has argued that his plea agreement ruled out any cooperation with the government. Two appellate courts, the 4th Circuit and 11th Circuit have rejected that argument, saying no such agreement is in the written plea and was not uttered during Al-Arian’s plea hearing.

The indictment offers few details, except to give Oct. 16, 2007 and March 20, 2008 as the dates of his alleged criminal contempt. The grand jury’s focus is believed to be on terror financing by the Herndon, Va.-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).

IIIT was the single biggest donor for Al-Arian’s Tampa-based think tank, the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE). The president of IIIT Al-Arian wrote a letter in 1992 referring to WISE as an extension of IIIT.