MIAMI, May 1: An Arab-American former university professor was sentenced in Florida on Monday to 57 months in jail and deportation for conspiring to aid a Palestinian group designated as ‘terrorist’ by the United States.

Sami Al Arian, formerly a professor at the University of South Florida, will be credited for the three years and three months he has already served since his arrest in Tampa, Florida.

The four year and nine month prison sentence is the maximum penalty for the charge to which Al Arian pleaded guilty last month in an agreement in which he admitted providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the 1980s and 1990s.

The PIJ, which is on the US State Department’s list of terrorist organisations, has been behind numerous suicide bombings against Israel, and claimed credit for an April 17 attack in Tel Aviv that killed nine people.

A jury had earlier acquitted Al Arian, 48, on eight counts of supporting terror groups, but the judge in those hearings declared a mistrial after the panel failed to render a complete verdict on all the charges, allowing the government to press for a new trial.

It was not immediately clear where he would be deported after he has served his sentence. Al Arian, born in Kuwait of Palestinian refugees, was raised in Egypt and has lived in the United States for more than 30 years.—AFP