WASHINGTON (PIC)– The United States government decided to deport the Palestinian Academician Dr. Sami al-Arian for charges of offering aid to Islamic Jihad Movement after years of legal battles.
Dr. Sami al-Arian former professor at Florida University left on Feb 4 2015 at night on a commercial flight out of Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
He was boarded a flight to Turkey according to a blog post by his attorney Jonathan Turley.
“Despite the long and arduous ordeal and hardships suffered by my family I leave with no bitterness or resentment in my heart whatsoever” al-Arian wrote in the online post.
The case against al-Arian formerly a computer science professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa received international attention as a test of U.S. government’s powers under the Patriot Act.
Al-Arian was arrested in 2003 on charges that he gave money and support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
A jury later acquitted al-Arian of eight of the 17 charges against him failing to reach a verdict on the remaining counts.
In 2006 al-Arian was expected to be deported as he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide services to the organization. He agreed to be deported after serving his prison sentence.
Instead the legal battle continued when Federal Prosecutors in Alexandria sought to hear his testimony in a separate investigation but he refused to do so in order to avoid cooperation with Federal investigations.
In 2008 he was charged for refusing to testify in a separate investigation despite giving him immunity.
