Al-Arian Defense Team Makes Pitch To Settle Case

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

Published: Jan 7, 2006

TAMPA - Attorneys are working behind the scenes to settle the terror-support case against Sami Al-Arian, a federal public defender said Friday.

Meanwhile, outside the federal courthouse, national Muslim leaders rallied to demand a resolution of the case.

Kevin Beck, a federal public defender representing Al-Arian co-defendant Hatim Fariz, said discussions are being held on "ways we can avoid a trial." He said his client will not agree to testify against Al-Arian.

"I can tell you that unabashedly," he said. "It is just not going to be a situation where one will testify against the other."

After a five-month trial, jurors last month acquitted Al-Arian and Fariz on numerous charges, including conspiracy to murder and maim people overseas. The jury deadlocked on other counts, including racketeering and conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

Jurors acquitted two other co-defendants, Ghassan Ballut and Sameeh Hammoudeh, of all charges against them.

Hammoudeh remains behind bars in an immigration detention facility in Bradenton. He and his wife pleaded guilty before the Al-Arian trial to unrelated fraud charges and agreed to be deported as part of their probation sentences.

Hammoudeh's attorney, Steven Bernstein, said his client remains in limbo awaiting deportation.

During a status conference Friday before U.S. District Judge James Moody, Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Zitek identified one factor in whether to pursue another trial: how Moody rules on acquittal motions by the defense.

"We're inclined at this point to continue the proceedings," Zitek said.

If there is a new trial, Zitek said, it should last less than two months. "We are looking at the evidence, trying to figure out how to streamline it to present the most compact, succinct case we can."

Because of attorney and court schedules, no trial appeared likely before August.

Al-Arian attorney William Moffitt told reporters, "It is our hope that in the near future, Dr. Al-Arian will be released."

Moffitt said he hasn't filed a motion to free Al-Arian on bail because of a pending immigration detainer, which could be used to place Al-Arian into an immigration holding facility if he were released.

"We don't want Dr. Al-Arian whisked away to an immigration facility where we would have difficulty communicating with him," he said.

Al-Arian has been detained since February 2003.

At the courthouse rally, Muslim civil rights activists from California and Washington shared the podium.

Ahmed Younis, national director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the Al-Arian case thrust America back into the court of public opinion. Younis said "a tsunami came upon the Muslim community since 9/11," the date of the terror attacks on the United States.