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Al-Arian's two attorneys tell judge they want off the case

By MEG LAUGHLIN
Published January 25, 2006

TAMPA - Defense attorneys for Sami Al-Arian asked a federal judge Tuesday to let them off the case.

While federal prosecutors are deciding whether to retry the nine mistrial counts on Al-Arian, attorneys Linda Moreno and Bill Moffitt have requested to be relieved from representing him.

They will explain why in a hearing Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas B. McCoun III. Most of the hearing will be closed to the public.

"We gave everything we had, and I'm too exhausted to give anymore," Moffitt, an attorney for the law firm Cozen O'Connor in Washington, D.C., told the St. Petersburg Times.

Moreno would not comment. The Tampa Web site for the civil litigation firm Wilkes and McHugh lists her as a "nursing home abuse attorney."

"She successfully defended the highest profile test case of the Patriot Act in the United States," it says. The terrorism trial of Al-Arian and three co-defendants lasted six months, ending in early December. More than 80 witnesses testified, and the government introduced hundreds of phone calls made by the defendants, secretly recorded by the FBI. But jurors turned in no guilty verdicts.

The four men were accused of raising money for the violent acts of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Two defendants, Ghassan Ballut and Sameeh Hammoudeh, were acquitted of all charges. Hatem Fariz was acquitted on 25 counts but could be retried on eight counts. Al-Arian was acquitted on eight counts but could be retried on nine counts.

Federal prosecutor Terry Zitek told the court that if the case is retried, his team will need until June to present "a streamlined case," which should take about two months.

On Tuesday, Nahla Al-Arian, wife of Al-Arian, said her husband was looking for other attorneys but had yet to find replacements.

"Moreno and Moffitt were excellent, and we will miss them a lot," she said.

Times staff writer Jennifer Liberto contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:54:10]