A former professor at the University of South Florida has been sentenced to 18 more months in prison before he will be deported from the United States. Sami Al-Arian, 48, entered into a plea bargain in which he admitted to supporting the terrorist group Islamic Jihad which has been responsible for suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Al-Arien's total sentence was four years and nine months but he will receive credit for the three years and three months he has already served to this point.
Although he signed the plea agreement which admitted involvement with Islamic Jihad, his family claims he signed the deal with prosecutors to end their suffering and maintain his innocence. After a six-month long trial, a jury failed to convict al-Arian on any of the 17 charges the government accused him of.
Al-Arian, a former computer engineering professor, admitted that he has been associated with Islamic Jihad since the late 1980s and that he provided 'services' for the group. Among the things he admitted to doing was helping members of the terrorist group obtain immigration benefits, hiding their identities from authorities and masking his own involvement with Islamic Jihad.
It is not yet known where the U.S. will send al-Arian when he is done serving his sentence. The former professor was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and spent most of his childhood in Egypt before coming to the U.S. 30 years ago.
