A federal judge has rebuffed another bid by a former Florida college professor, Sami Al-Arian, to end a contempt of court citation stemming from his refusal to testify before a grand jury investigating Islamic charities in Virginia, one of Al-Arian’s daughters said yesterday.

Laila Al-Arian said her father went before Judge Gerald Lee on October 17 to ask that the contempt citation be lifted, but to no avail. “He did not remove my father from contempt and he did not say why he did not remove my father from contempt,” she said. “The entire hearing was a pretty short one.” Another hearing was set for December, she said.

Sami Al-Arian, who has been jailed on the contempt charge since the end of last year, could be kept in jail for civil contempt through next spring.

In 2005, a six-month trial in which prosecutors accused Al-Arian of being Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s chief in America resulted in jurors acquitting him on some charges and reaching no verdict on others. He eventually pleaded guilty to one terrorism-support charge.

Al-Arian had almost completed his 57-month jail sentence when a prosecutor called him to the grand jury and he refused to testify, claiming that his plea agreement relieved him of any duty to appear. One federal appeals court rejected his argument, but another is still considering it.