Extortion was included in a 53-count federal indictment against Al-Arian and eight other men. Al-Arian, Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatim Fariz and Ghassan Ballut are scheduled to go to trial in April. The five other men live abroad and have not been arrested. All are accused of leadership roles in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group responsible for dozens of attacks and more than 100 deaths in Israel.

On Friday, public defender Wadie Said, who represents Fariz, asked U.S. District Judge James S. Moody to throw out extortion charges against his client, Fariz. If the judge agrees, the charges would likely be dropped from the other defendants as well. Several more charges would remain, including charges that they supported terrorism, racketeering and money laundering.

Said told Moody that the U.S. government cannot prove the defendants threatened a landowner with violence in an attempt to get the landowner's property. As Palestinians, Said said, members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have rights to land in Israel. The United Nations has backed these claims.

Rhetorically, Said asked how members of the Jihad can extort land that was once their homeland? Especially, he said, when they were forcibly removed from that land.

``It is my understanding, your honor, that extortion cannot lie where someone has a right to the property,`` Said said.

Moody said he did not want to discuss sovereignty or politics. The issue, he said, must remain within the confines of the law.

``I'm not going to make a political decision today,`` Moody said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Zitek said the extortion charge is warranted because members of the Jihad have made threats to murder and kill Jews unless the Palestinians receive land.

``They want that land and they want it from everybody in Israel,`` Zitek said.

Moody asked Zitek if the prosecutors were going to name a specific landowner who was threatened with violence. Zitek avoided answering the question by reiterating that the Jihad wants to threaten all Israelis until they give up their land.

Moody did not make a decision on the extortion charge Friday.

Footer Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698.