Judge Grants Bail to Dr. Sami Al-Arian

Dr. Sami Al-Arian’s bond hearing was held this morning, July 10, 2008, at the U.S. District Courthouse in Alexandria, VA. His children Abdullah, Laila and Ali were in the courtroom, as well as a number of Al-Arian supporters, including four Washington Report staff members. Al-Arian himself looked gaunt and exhausted.

Judge Leonie Brinkema listened to the government’s arguments presented by the prosecution, U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg, who painted a muddled picture of Al-Arian as a dangerous man who has refused to provide evidence against an Islamic think tank, and as a flight risk.The defense arguments presented by Al-Arian’s attorney, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, told a different story. Al-Arian, his attorney explained, has volunteered four times to take polygraph tests, answered every question the government has asked, and examined every document the government has asked him to comment on in their efforts to prosecute a Virginia think tank. Dr. Al-Arian has painstakingly explained the government’s every misinterpretation and said he knows of no criminality. According to Turley, the government did not respond to several offers by Al-Arian to take polygraphs and has said he is a minor witness in its investigation. Yet, contrary to its agreement to expedite his deportation, it still refuses to release him.

Turley told Judge Brinkema that Al-Arian was not a flight risk or a danger to the community. “He’s an international scholar who would not abandon his children or his principles to become a fugitive,” Turley explained. Al-Arian posted his entire retirement savings, $340,000, as bond and offered to undergo global positioning monitoring. An undisclosed friend offered to post his own home as bond, but the judge said she would not require that. In response to a question from Judge Brinkema, Turley also noted Al-Arian’s health issues and the fact that the U.S. government would not agree to operate on Al-Arian’s hernia, even though Al-Arian’s family offered to pay for the surgery.

Judge Brinkema decided to release Al-Arian on bond, in the custody of his son Abdullah. He will be under house arrest and released from U.S. Marshal custody as soon as the monitoring equipment arrives and bond is posted. However, she noted, she could not order Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release Dr. Al-Arian if they decide to hold him. Even if that is the case, Judge Brinkema said, the clock will start running on the deadline by which Al-Arian must be deported.

As for Kromberg’s contention that Al-Arian is a man without a country and no country is willing to accept Al-Arian when he is deported, Turley said the government is showing “willful blindness.” The Egyptian government has sent a letter to the U.S. government saying it will accept Al-Arian, Turley said—a letter which Kromberg has received. Palestinians also have invited Al-Arian to live in the occupied territories, Turley said. Judge Brinkema warned that she did not want to hear that there had been any signal or pressure from the U.S. government to make a country (i.e., Egypt) change its position about receiving Al-Arian.

Dr. Al-Arian’s trial on charges of criminal contempt (for refusing to testify before a grand jury convened by Kromberg) is scheduled to begin August 13th. At the conclusion of the trial (assuming he is not sentenced to an indeterminate prison sentence), ICE would resume deportation proceedings for Sami Al-Arian—who, after 12 years of surveillance and a lengthy trial in his home town of Tampa, Florida—has yet to be convicted of a single charge brought against him.

For more information see an Associated Press article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071001319.html?hpid=moreheadlines.

Also read Jon Turley's blog about it: http://jonathanturley.org/2008/07/10/dr-sami-al-arian-granted-bail/