A former University of South Florida professor who faced terrorism charges in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks has left the United States.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sami Al Arian has left the U.S. and moved to Turkey.
Al Arian, 57, a computer engineering professor hired at USF in 1986, was indicted in February 2003 on 17 counts under the Patriot Act. He was later acquitted on eight of the counts by a grand jury, that was deadlocked on the other nine.
He later struck a plea deal and had been held under house arrest in northern Virginia from 2008 until 2014.
"Sami Al Arian, the former University of South Florida professor convicted of aiding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a foreign terrorist organization, was removed from the United States Wednesday night by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) via a commercial flight from Washington Dulles International Airport in Fairfax, Virginia," the ICE said in a released statement.
During his time at USF, Al Arian founded two organizations that allegedly helped a relative with ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al Arian was also identified as the secretary of the PIJ.
The Department of Justice filed subsequent criminal charges against Al Arian in 2008, which rendered him irremovable from the United States since criminal proceedings were ongoing.
Once those charges were dropped during summer 2014, ICE began to process Al Arian for removal.