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Sami Al-Arian trial: The week in review
By Times Staff
Published August 1, 2005
Former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian and three co-defendants are on trial in federal court, accused of using Islamic charities as fronts in a conspiracy to finance terrorist attacks by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. With the trial expected to last six months, the St. Petersburg Time s is providing a weekly summary highlighting last week's important developments.
THE LATEST: Last week prosecutors began introducing evidence key to their case: transcripts of FBI wiretaps or faxes and phone conversations to and from Al-Arian and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in Damascus, Syria.
The faxes and phone conversations, from January 1994, repeatedly centered on plans for revamping how PIJ funds are managed. About a dozen of the faxes sent to Al-Arian have PIJ logos on them. FBI Agent Kerry Myers explained what he described as the "veiled language" in the evidence to jurors.
One of the conversations cited salaries paid by the PIJ to people in the United States, whose names corresponded to four associates of Al-Arian at a Tampa think tank he founded.
The judge instructed them that possession of the PIJ materials and conversations with PIJ members in 1994, in and of itself, was not illegal.
Prosecutors must prove that Al-Arian and the three other defendants used the information as part of a conspiracy to fund PIJ terrorist acts.
The former USF professor and co-defendants Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatem Fariz and Ghassan Ballut are accused of using Islamic charities as fronts in a conspiracy to finance terrorist attacks by the PIJ, which has claimed responsibility for killing more than 100 people in Israel and the occupied territories.
WHAT'S NEXT: Today, prosecutors continue to read from transcripts of conversations and faxes secretly recorded by FBI agents in 1994, and Myers will continue to decipher what they're reading for jurors.
It will be several weeks before defense attorneys can cross-examine Myers.
[Last modified August 1, 2005, 00:58:09]
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