A Florida professor who pleaded guilty to supporting Islamic Jihad will serve another 18 months in prison before being deported. Sami al-Arian’s plea was part of a deal with prosecutors after the government failed to secure a guilty verdict against him in a lengthy trial; the jury acquitted on eight of the 17 charges and deadlocked on others. Rather than face retrial, al-Arian accepted the deal and had expected to be released Monday at his sentencing hearing. However, instead of sentencing al-Arian to the three years he has already served, U.S. District Court Judge James Moody tacked on another 18 months. Al-Arian’s fund raising for Islamic Jihad made him an “active leader” of the Palestinian terrorist group, Moody said. The judge mocked al-Arian’s claims that he was fund raising for charities. “Your only connection to widows and orphans was that you create them,” he said.
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