by Keith Morelli

TAMPA TRIBUNE

TAMPA — Sami Al-Arian, the for­mer Uni­ver­sity of South Florida pro­fes­sor who remained in a Vir­ginia prison on con­tempt of court charges despite his acquit­tal on seri­ous ter­ror­ist charges, has lost 32 pounds in a month-long hunger strike, accord­ing to an Islamic group’s exec­u­tive direc­tor who vis­ited Al-Arian on Monday.

Sami Al-Arian (2002)

Al-Arian is on his sec­ond hunger strike to protest his deten­tion. His fam­ily last year moved to Egypt and he is expected to be deported as soon as he is released from prison. But his refusal to tes­tify before a fed­eral grand jury is delay­ing his release.

“I was really shocked to see how skinny he is and how much weight he lost,” said Nihad Awad, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Coun­cil on American-Islamic Rela­tions (CAIR). “His hunger strike began on March 3, and now he looks like a totally dif­fer­ent per­son from the per­son I knew five years ago.”

Still, Awad said, Al-Arian’s spir­its are high. “Amaz­ingly, he is com­posed and he made sense. He was very sharp, very alert.

“He believes in his just cause and we were there to sup­port him,” Awad said.

Al-Arian is on his sec­ond hunger strike. On March 3, he first refused food and water. He had been taken to a med­ical facil­ity in North Car­olina for treat­ment but was returned to the North­ern Neck Regional Jail in War­saw, Va. He is now tak­ing only liq­uids and has lost 32 pounds.

“This defies logic,” Awad said Mon­day night. “It vio­lates the spirit of jus­tice that this coun­try is so proud of. We just hope that peo­ple of con­science and respon­si­ble peo­ple in the gov­ern­ment will look at this case because it is pub­li­cized worldwide.”

Vis­it­ing Al-Arian were rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Amer­i­can Mus­lim Alliance (AMA), the Mus­lim Amer­i­can Soci­ety (MAS), CAIR, and Amer­i­can Mus­lim Task­force on Civil Rights and Elec­tions (AMT).

After the visit, the con­tin­gent called on the House Judi­ciary Com­mit­tee to inter­vene in the case.

The for­mer pro­fes­sor was tried in fed­eral court two years ago, and acquit­ted of many of the more seri­ous charges. The jury dead­locked on nine charges and Al-Arian ended up plead­ing guilty to lesser counts.

“The last thing you want to see,” Awad said, “is a polit­i­cal pris­oner dying on hunger strike.”