[Ppnews] Al-Arian Judge Seeks Record Review

[Political Prisoner News]

Al-Arian Judge Seeks Record Review

By <http://www.nysun.com/authors/Joseph+Goldstein>JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, 
Staff Reporter of the Sun | July 29, 2008
<http://www.nysun.com/national/al-arian-judge-seeks-record-review/82778/>http://www.nysun.com/national/al-arian-judge-seeks-record-review/82778/

A federal judge in Virginia has indicated that she wants to review 
the grand jury record that led to criminal contempt charges of a 
Palestinian Arab activist and former college professor, 
<http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Sami+Al-Arian>Sami Al-Arian.

The order by Judge Leonie Brinkema of U.S. District Court in 
<http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Alexandria+%28Virginia%29>Alexandria, 
Va., may be nothing more than a signal that she is reading up on the 
facts of the case before Al-Arian's trial, which is set to begin in 
two weeks. Or it could be a sign that she is giving considerable 
weight to Al-Arian's argument that he is being singled out for 
prosecution because prosecutors are sore that they failed to convict 
him of terrorism-related charges at a trial in Florida in 2005.

In an order issued recently, Judge Brinkema instructed federal 
prosecutors to provide to her, in addition to relevant grand jury 
transcripts, a list of any other similar criminal contempt cases 
brought by prosecutors in her district.

The current contempt charges faced by Al-Arian, who previously has 
pleaded guilty to assisting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, relate to 
his refusal to testify before two grand juries investigating a web of 
nonprofit Muslim groups connected to a Herndon, Va.-based think tank, 
the International Institute for Islamic Thought.




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