Former Florida college professor Sami Al-Arian, who pled guilty to one count of aiding a terrorist organization and is in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia, might face a new criminal contempt charge.

The likelihood of a new such indictment appears to have increased since prosecutors obtained an 11-year sentence for another former professor, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, who refused to testify before a grand jury investigating Hamas’s ties in the U.S. (The New York Sun)

Harsh sentences ought to be meted out when terrorism-related crimes are being investigated.