TBO.com > News > Latest News Reports
- Moffitt Among Quarterfinalists For Lott Award
- Two Women Thrown From Boat When It Hits I-75 Bridge
- Judge Imposes Stay On Lethal Injections
- Poll: More Coastal Residents Would Not Evacuate For Hurricane
- Robbers In Ninja Garb Strike Hampton Inn
- Deputy Is Accused Of Domestic Battery
- 2 Men Burst Into Home, Steal More Than $7,000
- Temple Terrace Man Wounded In Shooting
- Polk Deputies Charge 17 Men After Weekend Cockfight
- Baby Dropped Off At Fire Station
- Jury Awards $21.1 Million In Wrongful Birth Case
- Deputies Investigate Bank Robbery
- Grandpa Robbed; Grandson Charged
- Composite Sketch Of Armed Carjacker Released
- Progress Village Homicide Victim ID’d
Ahmed Bedier, with the Council of American Islam Relations, center, speaks at a press conference Monday morning with Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, left, and Mana Saleh Almanajam. CLIFF McBride/Tribune
By KEITH MORELLI
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Two Saudi Arabian men who sparked a homeland security alarm in May when they boarded a school bus and rode it to an area high school were entered into a pretrial intervention program that could lead to the trespassing charges being dropped.
Both men, students at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida on a student visa, must successfully complete the six-month program before prosecutors will consider dropping the misdemeanor counts, said Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi.
“The charges are not dropped,’’ she said. “They are going into a pretrial intervention program for first-time offenders.
“One of the conditions they have is to write a paper on what they did that day,’’ she said, “in English.’’
Islamic advocates have said the men were charged because they don’t speak English well and misunderstandings occurred during questioning.
Bondi said the defendants must submit their papers to her office as a requirement of completing the program. Should they decide to return to Saudi Arabia before the term is up, “they can go,’’ Bondi said. “We won’t stop them.’’
If they successfully complete the program, prosecutors likely would drop the charges, Bondi said.
Initially, Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, were held on $250 bail, which was revoked while Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers checked them out. On May 23, four days after they were arrested, a judge agreed to release them without having to post bail.
Their arrests alarmed the community, with some accusing the pair of making a trial run for a terrorist plot.
Almanajam and Alsidran were charged with trespassing on school property after they boarded a school bus on Fletcher Avenue and rode it to Wharton High School in New Tampa.
They joked and spoke in Arabic, Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies said. Students on the bus and the driver, who was a substitute that day, became concerned and called ahead. Deputies detained the men when they got off the bus. They told authorities they were from Morocco, then admitted they were from Saudi Arabia.
They gave differing stories about why they were on the bus, but Islamic advocates maintain the differing stories were the result of language misunderstandings.
The incident has sparked discussions at the school district on how to make the bus system more secure.
Contact Keith Morelli at (813) 865-1504 or
Wow, the racism and ignorance of all of your comments is unbelievable.
Has it ever occured to you that maybe they really did board the bus by mistake? How is someone, from another culture who doesn’t speak our language very well, supposed to magically know that the bus wasn’t for them? They heard school and bus, and they were accustom to taking a bus to school, an institute of learning, which is was their destination.
I guess if you have brown skin and an arabic accent you’re guilty until proven innocent. I wonder if when they finally do find the right bus if they’ll be ordered to get to back of it.
I am familar with the location as I am a USF student whi lives on that street. There are several different buses that pick people of all agegs at the same exact bus stop including the city Hartline, public school buses, and a usf Shuttle bus. Is it not possible that two students who do not speak english very well could have made a mistake and got on the same bush a bunch of high school students were getting on.
In addition it is more the drivers fault.
yu are all ignorant biggots and racists who scream terriorism just like the government wants you too. wake up people and stop being so damn stupid
The English Language Institute cost $3950 per session. 5 sessions in total..
Where did these two get the money!! Is our high gas prices affording them this?
My wife (chinese) would love to attend this school, but even with veteran benefits (I am a disabled veteran) the govenment will not help pay for this…
Make them leave and never come back..! A travesty in americas homeland!!
This was obviously a trial run. The terrorists are aiming for our children because they are cowards and have no morals. They are infidels…
Can you not recognize reconaissance when you see it. How many of our babies will be hurt, before we reallize we are at war with cowards.
Just another example of our weak or non-existent local/state ordinances and laws.
The school district should fire the driver for letting these people on the bus.
Don’t believe we would have been given the same slap on the hand if we did the same thing in Saudi Arabia.
What a joke this is. Please, send them back ASAP. What good could have come of this and how could we accept an excuse that this was all a mistake due to language barriers. If you dont speak english and/or have a clue whats going on around you at any given time, please, by all means, LEAVE!
Send them back. They are smarter and most likley can speek and understand our “english”. Just think about it they laugh behind our backs.
Sorry my thoughts June Kinney
Advertisement
Posted by Michael MacQueen, Tampa on 06/26 at 09:24 PM
Michael, Brian, call us racists and bigots all you want. History is on our side. In the last thirty years or so, whenever a bus or any other form of public conveyance gets blown up, a middle-eastern Muslim is usually pushing the button.
Are we afraid of terrorism? Darn tootin’, because we have to play nice with the bad guys, while they’ve thrown away the rule book. Then of course, we have people in our own country, can anybody say New York Times, and a bunch of politicians who are cheering for the terrorists. So, if you’re offended with us getting a little itchy, and short tempered with folks who fit the profile.....TUFF.