U.S. May Retry Former Professor

TAMPA, Jan. 6 -- Federal prosecutors, still stinging from Sami al-Arian's acquittal on eight terrorism counts last month, said Friday that they are leaning toward retrying the former college professor and a co-defendant on charges that their jury could not decide.

Prosecutor Terry Zitek told U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. that the government is inclined to continue "but we haven't made a final decision."

Al-Arian, Hatem Naji Fariz and two others were accused of supporting the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Jurors found al-Arian not guilty on eight counts and deadlocked on nine others. They cleared Fariz on 25 counts but deadlocked on eight. The other two were acquitted.