Three Years After Arrest, Dr. Al-Arian Remails in Jail
February 20, 2006

TAMPA-

On this day exactly three years ago, federal authorities took Dr. Sami Al-Arian away from his family during the pre-dawn hours. Over the next two years, the government spent millions of taxpayer dollars to prosecute Dr. Al-Arian, meanwhile placing him under harsh and psychologically debilitating conditions at Coleman Federal Penitentiary before trial.

Despite a six-month trial in which the deck was stacked against Dr. Al-Arian and his three co-defendants in countless ways, the four men were found innocent in December.

Even so, the government has continued to prolong Dr. Al-Arian and his family's suffering by threatening to re-try him. These actions are especially shameful considering the jury's stinging rebuke of the government's case; after the verdict, several jurors said the evidence to convict was simply not there.

As over 150 supporters, including civil rights attorneys and a former congressman, said in a vigil yesterday in front of Orient Road Jail in Tampa, Dr. Al-Arian must be released immediately. Three
years is far too long to continue unjustly detaining an innocent
man.