Some Verdicts Reached in Student's Terror Case

BOISE, Idaho – Jurors reached a verdict Wednesday on some counts but not on others in the case of accused terrorism supporter Sami Omar Al-Hussayen (search).

The jury of four men and eight women notified U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge shortly after lunch that they were at an impasse on various charges in the 14 count indictment.

Lodge said they did not identify which of the charges were unresolved.

Al-Hussayen's defense team was assessing an additional instruction Lodge proposed for the jury in an apparent attempt to end the impasse.

The development came on the 6th day of the trial of the 34-year-old Saudi national and University of Idaho (search) graduate student, who is charged with using his online skills to create an Internet network that financed and recruited terrorists for various groups, including the militant Palestinian organization Hamas (search).

His defense team has insisted throughout that he had only volunteered his skills to the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America (search) to maintain its Web sites that promote Islam.

Any radical or subversive material posted on those sites or others somehow linked to them did not reflect Al-Hussayen's views, the attorneys contended, and would be constitutionally protected under the First Amendment anyway. They have pointed out that Al-Hussayen publicly denounced the Sept. 11, 2001, East Coast terror attacks as a leader of the Muslim community in Moscow.

The government has also charged him with four counts of making false statements and seven counts of visa fraud for allegedly trying to hide his association with the assembly.

Al-Hussayen, a member of a prominent Riyadh family whose education was being financed by the Saudi government, has already been declared subject to deportation once the criminal charges against him are resolved. He has continued working on his doctorate since being jailed after his arrest on Feb. 26, 2003.

His wife and three sons returned to Saudi Arabia early this year rather than fight deportation. Al-Hussayen has been working from jail to finish his doctorate degree in computer science from the university.