Sami Al-Arian

Sami Al-Arian

Sami Amin Al-Arian (Arabic: سامي أمين العريان‎; born January 14, 1958) is a Palestinian-American activist who was a computer engineering professor at University of South Florida. He is currently under house arrest in Northern Virginia.

During the Clinton administration and Bush administration, he was invited to the White House. In 2000, he actively campaigned for the Bush presidential campaign in the presidential election.

He was indicted in February 2003 on 17 counts under the Patriot Act. A grand jury acquitted him on 8 counts and deadlocked on the remaining 9 counts. He later struck a plea bargain and admitted to one of the remaining charges in exchange for being released and deported by April 2007. But as his release date approached, he was indefinitely imprisoned for refusing to testify before the Virginia grand jury in a separate case.