Sami Omar Al-Hussayen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a native of Saudi Arabia and former graduate student in Computer Science at the University of Idaho, is a Webmaster who was acquitted of charges that he ran Web sites which supported terrorism.^[1] Al-Hussayen was defended online by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Sami Omar Al-Hussayen
Born:	1973 (age 34–35) Saudi Arabia
Detained at:	Idaho
Penalty:	acquitted
Status	deported
Occupation:	Professor of Computer Science
Spouse:	yes
Children:	yes

Contents 1 Arrest and Charges 2 Trials 3 Deportation 4 Importance of the Case 5 References

[edit] Arrest and Charges

Al-Hussayen was arrested at in late February 2003 in the town of Moscow, Idaho.^[2]

There were two cases against him - one a federal case and the other an immigration related one.

For the federal case, he was initially charged with seven counts of visa fraud, and four counts of lying to officials.^[1] All charges stemmed from his alleged work as a webmaster, as foreign students on student visas in the United States of America are not allowed to work for employers not situated on their campus. Al-Hussayen maintained that the work he did was purely voluntary, and did not get monetary compensation, and thus could not have violated the conditions of his visa.

He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

In March of 2003, it was ruled that Mr. Al-Hussayen should be set free without bail and remain under house arrest until his trial commenced. However, immigration officials detained him for their case and he was transferred to their custody.

[edit] Trials

The immigration hearings took place behind closed doors in the middle of 2003, and it was ruled that Mr. Al-Hussayen was deportable.^{[citation needed]}

In January of 2004, he was charged with two counts of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists using his skills in computers.^[1]

In March of 2004, he was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to Hamas - through donation links on Web sites he allegedly maintained. His formal indictments can be seen here.^[1]

His trial began in April of 2004.^[3][4] His trial lasted six weeks. The defense called only one witness. He was acquitted of all three terrorism charges, and of three of the eight immigration charges. The jurors deadlocked on the remaining charges, and District Judge Edward Lodge declared a mistrial for those remaining charges.^[5]

[edit] Deportation

After his acquittal at the criminal trial, Al-Hussayen was still imprisoned by immigration authorities, and a few weeks later, agreed not to appeal his deportation order if the prosecution agreed not to retry him for the remaining charges.^[3] He was deported to Saudi Arabia in July of 2004. His wife and three sons traveled back to meet him, rather than await deportation orders. Al-Hussayen currently lives in Riyadh where he works as an instructor at a technical university, while his wife works as a kindergarten teacher.

[edit] Importance of the Case

The Patriot Act authorizes the government to prosecute people if they "provide expert advice or assistance" to terrorist groups, although a January 2004 federal case in California ruled that this violates First and Fifth Amendment rights.^[4][6]

The USA Today reported that U.S. District Court Judge Audrey Collins ruled that the Patriot Act's barring "expert advice or assistance" to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations was too vague.^[4] The USA Today quoted the director of the Martin Institute for Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution and the Martin School of International Affairs at the University of Idaho, Rand Lewis:

"We have a law that is shaky at best. My feeling is that Sami is going to be the test case in this."[4] "Passive supporters often don't know they're supporting terrorism. So when you get into these gray areas about what people know and what they don't know, I think the law is going to have a difficult time."[4]

[edit] References