Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
"JUAN GONZALEZ: Jailed Palestinian Professor Sami Al-Arian has entered the nineteenth day of a hunger strike to protest what he calls continued government harassment. He was brought before a third grand jury Thursday, but did not testify.
Al-Arian has been in prison for five years on charges that he was a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Two years ago, a Florida jury failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the seventeen charges brought against him. Despite the jury’s findings, Al-Arian remained behind bars. Last year, Al-Arian was imprisoned for an additional eighteen months for refusing to testify before a Virginia grand jury.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now here in the firehouse studio by Laila Al-Arian, the eldest daughter of Sami Al-Arian, a freelance journalist here in New York. Joining us on the phone from Washington, Will Olson, the local Virginia counsel for Sami Al-Arian.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Can you describe, Laila, what has happened now? He was not convicted on any of the seventeen charges. They deadlocked on, what was it, nine of them, and they acquitted him on seven counts?
LAILA AL-ARIAN: Eight counts......"
With Amy Goodman
"JUAN GONZALEZ: Jailed Palestinian Professor Sami Al-Arian has entered the nineteenth day of a hunger strike to protest what he calls continued government harassment. He was brought before a third grand jury Thursday, but did not testify.
Al-Arian has been in prison for five years on charges that he was a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Two years ago, a Florida jury failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the seventeen charges brought against him. Despite the jury’s findings, Al-Arian remained behind bars. Last year, Al-Arian was imprisoned for an additional eighteen months for refusing to testify before a Virginia grand jury.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now here in the firehouse studio by Laila Al-Arian, the eldest daughter of Sami Al-Arian, a freelance journalist here in New York. Joining us on the phone from Washington, Will Olson, the local Virginia counsel for Sami Al-Arian.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Can you describe, Laila, what has happened now? He was not convicted on any of the seventeen charges. They deadlocked on, what was it, nine of them, and they acquitted him on seven counts?
LAILA AL-ARIAN: Eight counts......"
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