Professor Al-Arian is a Palestinian American civil rights and Palestine solidarity activist who was indicted in 2003 and put on trial for aiding the Palestinian resistance organization Islamic Jihad. At the time of his arrest U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft held a press conference announcing the professor’s arrest to the nation. In the U.S. war on terror, Sami Al-Arian was the big test case. The U.S. government spent more than ten years spying on Al-Arian and intercepting more than 400,000 phone calls. However the U.S. prosecutors could not get a guilty verdict from jurors on any of the 17 charges. After spending two years in jail while on trial and faced with another trial and more years away from his family, Al-Arian made a plea deal, agreeing to leave the country and going into political exile. Then U.S. prosecutors tried to use their power to punish Al-Arian. Instead of letting professor Al-Arian serve time and leave the country as agreed in negotiations, U.S. prosecutors demanded Al-Arian testify at a federal grand jury in Virginia, which he refused to do based on his agreement with the government. He then was charged with contempt and jailed. Since 2008 he has lived under house arrest and in 2014 the charges against him were dropped. He was deported in early February and now lives in Turkey.

Tampa, FL — University of South Florida computer engineering professor Sami Al-Arian was set free today in Virginia. Federal prosecutors decided to finally drop his case today after his family waited in legal limbo for five years. The judge who delayed the ruling presides over a court nicknamed the “rocket docket” for its speed of settling cases.

San José, CA – On July 19, some 25 people gathered at the San José Peace and Justice Center to watch the film USA vs. Al-Arian. The event was organized by the South Bay Committee Against Political Repression (SBCAPR) and emceed by Donna Wallach of the SBCAPR.

Tampa, FL – About a dozen activists gathered outside of Sam M. Gibbons United States Courthouse here, Sept. 24, to mark the second year anniversary of the FBI raids against anti-war activists in 2010. These events and the subsequent grand jury investigation amount to nothing more than a witch hunt, with the aim of interfering with the anti-war movement. The protest demanded an end to the federal investigation of the peace activists.

Butner, North Carolina - More than 80 students and civil rights activists rallied here, March 24, to protest the U.S. government’s indefinite imprisonment of Dr. Sami al-Arian. Dr. al-Arian, a Palestinian, was a tenured professor of computer science at the University of South Florida. In 2003, he and three others were arrested and charged with ‘supporting terrorism.’ The U.S. government claimed he was working on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an organization that is fighting to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine.