Jury Selected In Terrorism Trial Of Fla. Professor
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.
TAMPA, FLA. – Attorneys seated a jury yesterday to hear the trial of a former college professor accused of aiding Palestinian Arab terrorists.
Attorneys for Sami Al-Arian and three co-defendants had asked U.S. District Judge James Moody to move the trial out of Tampa, claiming that the jury pool was tainted by politics and pervasive press coverage.
But after questioning potential jurors for three days, attorneys were left with a pool of 89, from which they chose the jury of 12 and 10 alternates yesterday.
Opening arguments are expected June 6.
By Judge Moody’s order, the jurors’ names and any other identifying information is being withheld from the press and public.
Mr. al-Arian, a 47-year-old former University of South Florida computer scientist, and his three co-defendants face a 53-count indictment that includes charges of racketeering, conspiracy, and providing material support to terrorists. Five other men have been indicted but are not in custody.
Prosecutors allege the men used an Islamic academic think tank and a Palestinian Arab charity founded by Mr. al-Arian as fund-raising fronts for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is on a State Department list of terrorist organizations. The group is blamed for more than 100 deaths in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
A New Jersey student, Alisa Flatow, was among eight killed in the April 9, 1995, terrorist attack at the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom that is blamed on Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
