Al-Arian Judge Seeks Record Review

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

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, Sami Al-Arian.

The order by Judge Leonie Brinkema of U.S. District Court in 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.


The New York Sun

© 2024 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use