Judge orders former Florida professor freed on bond

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A federal judge, overruling government objections, has ordered that a former professor in custody since 2003 as part of a terrorism investigation be freed on bond. It's unlikely that former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian will immediately be set free. It's expected that he'll be transferred to immigration authorities since he's subject to deportation. Prosecutors initially charged Al-Arian with being a leader of a Palestinian terrorist group. He was acquitted on most charges, but later struck a plea on lesser charges, including conspiring to aid a Palestinian terrorist group. Now the government wants to prosecute him again for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating a cluster of Muslim organizations in northern Virginia.