Al-Arian goes on hunger strike

The move is in protest of a third subpoena to go before a grand jury.

By Meg Laughlin, Times Staff Writer
Published March 7, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] Ex-University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian is dehydrated, his daughter says.

Sami Al-Arian is on the fifth day of a hunger strike in a Virginia prison, protesting a third subpoena to testify before a grand jury. He has refused food and water and has been transferred to a medical ward.

His daughter, Laila, who visited him Wednesday, described him as dehydrated, weak and disoriented.

Al-Arian's wife, Nahla, talked to him from Egypt on Thursday and said she could barely hear him.

"I am so very worried about Sami," she said. "It's shocking that the Department of Justice would reach this low."

In December 2005, a Tampa jury acquitted Al-Arian on eight terrorism-related charges and deadlocked on nine. In May 2006, Al-Arian accepted a plea deal, admitting to helping associates of a terrorist group with immigration and legal matters. Federal prosecutors recommended Al-Arian be released from prison in a few months and deported. But Tampa federal Judge James S. Moody extended his sentence until April 2007.

A few months before Al-Arian's scheduled release, Gordon Kromberg, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, subpoenaed Al-Arian to testify before a grand jury. He has subpoenaed Al-Arian two more times, including last week.

[Last modified March 6, 2008, 23:34:27]