Ex-USF professor Sami Al-Arian to be deported in terrorism case

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities have decided to deport a former University of South Florida professor and long-time Palestinian rights activist after failing to convict him on charges he helped finance terrorist attacks in Israel.

Two lawyers familiar with the case say Sami Al-Arian has reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a lesser charge and be deported.

The lawyers spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not been made public by the court.

It isn't clear where Al-Arian will be sent.

Al-Arian has been in jail since a Tampa jury acquitted him in December on eight of the 17 federal charges against him, then deadlocked on the rest.

The case against Al-Arian was once hailed by authorities as a triumph of the anti-terror Patriot Act.

But jurors said the mountain of intercepted phone calls and other materials did not directly link Al-Arian and his co-defendants to violent acts.

Al-Arian had been a computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida.