WASHINGTON, 21 February 2003 — Eight people, including four US residents, were charged in a 50-count indictment with supporting, financing and relaying messages for a violent Palestinian terrorist group blamed for the deaths of more than 100 people in and around Israel.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, was unsealed yesterday. It charges that the men are members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, designated by the United States as a terrorist organization. Among them are a Palestinian professor at the University of South Florida, 45-year-old Sami Amin Al-Arian, who is described as the group’s US leader and secretary of its worldwide council.
In Florida, Al-Arian was seen being led in handcuffs to FBI headquarters in Tampa after the arrest.
“It’s all about politics,” Al-Arian told reporters as agents led him inside.
In announcing the indictment, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the eight supported numerous violent terrorist activities.
“Our message to them and to others like them is clear: We make no distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks and those who knowingly finance, manage or supervise terrorist organizations,” he said.
The indictment charges the eight men with operating a criminal racketeering enterprise since 1984 that supported Palestinian Islamic Jihad and with conspiracy to kill and maim people abroad, conspiracy to provide material support to the group, extortion, perjury and other charges. Each defendant faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Al-Arian and two others were arrested in Tampa and a fourth man was arrested in Chicago. The other four were living abroad and are not in custody, Ashcroft noted.
The defendants allegedly provided financial support through a number of US-based entities, resolved internal conflicts, helped communicate claims of responsibility for terrorist actions and made false statements to immigration officials to help terrorists.
Those arrested in the United States yesterday were described as setting up a terrorist cell at the University of South Florida. They are:
— Al-Arian, the Florida college professor the government says ran the Jihad’s US operations.
— Sameeh Hammoudeh, 42, born in the West Bank, now a resident of Temple Terrace, Fla. He also is an instructor at the University of South Florida.
— Hatim Naji Fariz, 30, born in Puerto Rico and now living in Spring Hill, Fla. — Ghassan Zayed Ballut, 41, a West Bank native now living in Tinley Park, Ill., and owner of a small business.
