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Computer evidence's fate is unsure in Al-Arian trial

By MEG LAUGHLIN
Published September 21, 2005

TAMPA - Just how much more time the prosecution in the Sami Al-Arian trial needs to put on its case is anybody's guess.

The answer depends on whether U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. lets prosecutors enter about 65 more computer documents into evidence. And this decision depends upon what happens when a forensic computer expert for the defense talks to the prosecution's computer expert.

Court ended before noon Tuesday, so the two computer experts could arrange to talk and answer these questions: What do defense attorneys need to know in order to cross-examine the prosecution's expert? And, how long will it take them to know this?

Once the judge knows what's involved in the defense's preparation, he can decide how much, if any, of the information from the defendant's Web sites he wants to let into evidence.

Al-Arian and three co-defendants are charged with helping raise money for Palestinian Islamic Jihad so that the organization could commit terrorist acts in Israel and the occupied territories. Prosecutors believe the PIJ Web site information from defendants' computers is important because it shows knowledge of the organizations' terrorist acts.

Defense attorneys have argued that they can't cross-examine a Web site and that the computer evidence from Web sites shouldn't be admitted. The judge will decide about admissibility once the time issue involving computer experts is clarified.

[Last modified September 21, 2005, 00:23:13]