Remember former University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian? He’s back in the sights of prosecutors again, this time facing a criminal contempt of court charge for refusing to testify before a Virginia grand jury investigating terrorist fundraising among Islamic charities:
Stetson Law School professor Charles Rose said criminal contempt charges such as these are rare.
“I just can’t imagine that this is still around,” Rose said. “You almost never see a charge of criminal contempt, historically, unless you’re dealing with organized crime. They’re treating Sami Al-Arian like he is a member of a criminal organization.”
Well, he did plead guilty to conspiring with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, so, yeah, that’s how he’s being treated.
Al-Arian’s attorney is Jonathan Turley, who claims that Al-Arian can’t testify because he has no information to give.