- A Palestinian university professor being held in solitary
confinement on terrorism charges in Florida has urged a federal judge to
throw out his case, saying it amounted to a "thoughtless slaughter
of First Amendment rights" and sought to criminalise him solely for
his political beliefs.
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- The motion, filed by Sami al-Arian, is the latest twist
in a tormented case that has pitted free-speech advocates and fellow academics
against pro-Israeli terrorism experts and the local media on Florida's
Gulf Coast, who have waged a campaign against Mr al-Arian for years.
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- A court ruled in 2000 that Mr al-Arian - a computer science
professor at Florida State University in Tampa and founder of a political
think-tank - had no links to Palestinian groups espousing violence.
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- But after the 11 September attacks prosecutors were granted
access to thousands of hours of surveillance tapes collected by US intelligence.
In February, Mr al-Arian was indicted on charges that he was the chief
North American pointman for Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
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- He was fired from his job, denied bail and placed in
solitary confinement for 23 hours a day pending a trial that is not due
to start until 2005 at the earliest.
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- Amnesty International and others have denounced the terms
of his detention, saying they are tantamount to a presumption of guilt
before trial.
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- Mr al-Arian said the prosecutors had no understanding
of Middle East politics. "It is clear that the express purpose of
the indictment is to chill any support for the Palestinian cause and any
additional advocacy in favour of the rights of Arabs," he wrote. "By
telling only half of the story of the Middle East to the grand jury and
by basing an indictment for racketeering on one side of the story, the
government seeks to criminalise the conduct of those who disagree with
it."
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=441885
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