Professor sentenced for aiding terror

TAMPA, Fla., May 1 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Tampa imposed the maximum sentence Monday on a former University of South Florida professor who admitted supporting Islamic Jihad.

Sami Al-Arian, who has lived in the United States for 30 years, will be deported once he completes his sentence, The New York Times reported.

In December, a jury acquitted Al-Arian of eight of 17 charges against him, failing to agree on the others. The result in what had been billed as a major terrorism trial was an embarrassment to the Bush administration.

Al-Arian reached a plea agreement in which he admitted supporting Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group classified by the Justice Department as a terrorist organization.

Judge James Moody criticized Al-Arian and sentenced him to four years and nine months. Because he gets credit for the time he has been in prison, he will be deported in 19 months.

Al-Arian was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents.