USA vs al Arian (2007)

Origin: Norway | Documentary | Director: Line Halvorsen | 99 minutes

USA vs al Arian

Line Halvorsen 2007 docu 99 min.

In 2003, Sami Al Arian was accused of giving material support to a
terrorist organization and was held in solitary confinement for over three
years. The case of Sami Al Arian was one of the first major tests of the
Patriot Act, passed hastily after September 11, 2001. Al Arian's six month
trial ended without a single guilty verdict. But because the jury was hung
on some of the counts Al Arian remained in jail as the prosecution
threatened to retry him. This documentary is a close portrait of a
Palestinian American family facing terrorism charges levelled by the U.S.
Government. For years, Nahla Al Arian and her children fight to prove the
innocence of husband and father Sami, a Palestinian refugee and university
professor, who has lived in the USA for more than thirty years. The film
covers the ordeal inflicted on his family by the trial and detention, and
covers the Kafkaesque processes which force Al Arian, despite not being
found guilty, to negotiate a plea bargain including his deportation...

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9mInJncEY

Journalist Laila Al-Arian speaks about her father, Dr. Sami Al-Arian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7v62CIQhOM


View trailer