WASHINGTON — A federal jury in Idaho on Thursday acquitted a Saudi computer student of charges that he spread terrorism on the Internet, handing the Justice Department a resounding defeat in a case that turned on a provision of the USA Patriot Act.
The case of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, 34, in Boise had become a test of the scope of U.S. anti-terrorism laws, including a provision of the Patriot Act that targets secondary players.
Al-Hussayen was arrested in February 2003 in an early morning raid at his campus home at the University of Idaho in Moscow. He was accused of designing websites and posting messages on the Internet to recruit and raise funds for terrorist missions in Chechnya and Israel. His attorneys argued that he was being prosecuted for expressing views protected by the 1st Amendment.
The jury of four men and eight women delivered their verdicts after deliberating seven days. The trial lasted seven weeks and featured a convicted terrorist who said he was influenced by Al-Hussayen's Web writings, and a retired CIA operative who said he thought the government's case was a waste of time.
Al-Hussayen was acquitted on all three terrorism counts filed against him, as well as one count of making a false statement and two counts of visa fraud. Jurors could not reach verdicts on several other false-statement and visa-fraud counts, and a mistrial was declared on those charges.
"I think they need to focus on real terrorism cases. There are plenty of ways to do that without dismantling the Constitution," David Nevin, Al-Hussayen's lawyer, said in an interview after the verdict. "The message [from the jury to the Justice Department] has to be, 'Do it the right way.' "
Prosecutors had not decided whether to seek a retrial of the lesser false-statement and visa-fraud counts.
"We are naturally disappointed by the acquittals on some charges, and the deadlock on others," U.S. Atty. Tom Moss said in a prepared statement. "But my office and the Department of Justice remain committed to aggressively pursue those who provide illegal support to terrorists."
The verdicts point up a little-known reality of the Justice Department's war on terrorism since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. While it has won scores of highly publicized guilty pleas in terrorism-related cases -- often by dropping the most serious charges -- its trial record is mixed.
