Personal Info
- Country of residence: United States
Information
Al-Arian was born on January 14, 1958 in Kuwait. His parents, Amin and Laila Al-Arian, were Palestinian refugees after the creation of Israel in 1948. After the 1948 Palestine war, Amin had to leave behind the family soap factory in Jaffa and flee towards the Gaza Strip's refugee camps. Amin's family migrated to Kuwait in 1957 where Sami Al-Arian was born. Under Kuwaiti law, his parents had legal resident status but he was not eligible for citizenship. In 1966, his family was expelled from Kuwait after refusing to become informants for Kuwaiti intelligence. He received his primary and secondary education at Cairo, Egypt. During the early 1970s, Sami learned English from American TV shows, including Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, Baretta, and The Fugitive. He left Egypt in 1975, and returned in 1979 for a visit when he married Nahla Al-Najjar.
Amin Al-Arian used all of his life savings to send Sami to America for an education. In 1975, Al-Arian came to the United States to study engineering at Southern Illinois University. In 1978, he graduated with a major in Electrical Sciences and Systems Engineering. At North Carolina State University, he earned his master's degree in 1980 and doctorate in 1985. Sami Amin Al-Arian is a Palestinian-American civil rights activist who was a computer engineering professor at University of South Florida. He pled guilty in 2006 to conspiracy to contribute services to or for the benefit of the Palestine Islamic Jihad, a Specially Designated Terrorist organization.
He was indicted in 2003 on multiple counts related to supporting a Palestinian group on the State Department's terrorist list. At his trial the jury acquitted on 8 of 17 counts, and deadlocked on the remaining 9 counts. He then pleaded guilty in 2006, pursuant to a plea agreement, to conspiracy to help a "specially designated terrorist" organization, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian was sentenced to 57 months in prison, given credit for time served, and ordered deported following his prison term. He was to serve the balance of 19 months.
In November 2006, because he refused to testify before a federal grand jury after the court held that he had no legal basis for his refusal, he was held in civil contempt and imprisoned for his contempt of court by a Virginia district court judge. He served 13 months in prison for his civil contempt, until the court lifted its contempt order in December 2007.
In 2007 and 2008, the United States Department of Justice subpoenaed Al-Arian to testify before a grand jury. He again refused to testify, and prosecutors charged him with criminal contempt in June 2008. In September 2008, Al-Arian was released from detention on bond. He remained under house arrest, as he awaited a trial on criminal contempt charges.
He was deported to Turkey on February 4, 2015.
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