An Islamic scholar in Virginia who was sentenced to life in prison in 2005, for encouraging his followers to join an overseas militant group to train to fight against the United States, has had all of his convictions thrown out. A federal appeals court this month ruled that his statements, no matter how disturbing, were protected by the First Amendment.
The scholar, Ali al-Timimi, was convicted two decades ago on 10 criminal charges, including soliciting treason. But on Jan. 9, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., tossed out all of his remaining criminal convictions.
“Plenty of speech encouraging criminal activity is protected under the First Amendment,” Judge James Wynn wrote in the unanimous opinion. “The First Amendment’s protection does not depend on the popularity or palatability of the message conveyed. On the contrary, it is most vital when speech offends, disturbs or challenges prevailing sensibilities.”
Mr. Timimi, who was known internationally for his lectures on Islamic topics, had advised a group of Washington-area Muslim men, who identified him as their spiritual leader, to travel to Pakistan. There, he said, they could join a militant group to get military training and potentially fight American troops in Afghanistan.
Some of the men bought weapons and received training, although none ever fought in Afghanistan. They became known as the “paintball terrorists” because they had used paintball games in Virginia as part of their training, prosecutors said in 2005. Some were convicted on various charges and served lengthy prison terms.
Mr. Timimi’s defense team argued that he had simply counseled his followers to take their families abroad after Sept. 11 to protect them against an anti-Muslim backlash.
Mr. Tamimi and his lawyers have been challenging his conviction for 20 years. One of his longtime lawyers, Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar and law professor at George Washington University, said the case “stands as one of the longest direct appeals in history.”
After the trial in 2005, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia called the life term, mandated by federal sentencing guidelines, “draconian.”
She granted Mr. Timimi a conditional release from a supermax prison in Colorado in September 2020, when Mr. Turley drove him across the country to Northern Virginia, where Mr. Timimi has lived without incident and under court supervision.
In July 2024, Judge Brinkema, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, voided three of Mr. Timimi’s 10 convictions because of new rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving seven other convictions on appeal.
“Much to our frustration, Mr. Timimi has been routinely mislabeled as a ‘terrorism’ defendant,” Thomas M. Huff, his lawyer, said. “Although the underlying issues of his case were of course sensitive and complex, they did not involve any terrorism charges whatsoever — a point Judge Brinkema made explicit in her 2020 opinion ordering his release pending appeal.”
During oral arguments three months ago, two of the judges hearing the appeal used President Trump’s speech, delivered to his supporters just before they attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as a point as they tried to clarify the distinction between First Amendment-protected speech and the punishable act of aiding and abetting a crime.
“What if a large group of people, angry at Congress, gathered on the Washington Mall, some of whom have firearms, and are known to have firearms, and a leader stood in front of them, here, right in front of them, not in another country, and said, ‘Go down the street and fight like hell. I’ll be there with you,’” Judge Stephanie Thacker said.
“So, if what you’re advocating is a crime, then what I just said is a crime — may be a crime,” she said.
In their decision this month, the judges did not comment on Mr. Timimi’s other arguments for acquittal, including that the government lacked sufficient evidence for his convictions. Judge Pamela Harris and Judge Thacker joined Judge Wynn’s ruling. All three judges were appointed by President Barack Obama.
A press officer for the United States Attorney’s Office in Alexandria could not immediately be reached for comment. Prosecutors could ask the full appeals court to consider the case, or seek a Supreme Court review.
Mr. Timimi, now 62, was born in Washington, the child of Iraqi immigrants. He received bachelor’s degrees in biology and computer science and, later, a Ph.D. in computational biology — used in gene sequencing — from George Mason University.
Mr. Timimi, whose father died in 2010 while he was still in prison, has lived in the home of his mother and brother while on conditional release.
Another of his lawyers, Geremy Kamens, a federal public defender, said on Sunday that he was relieved and gratified by this decision.
“When courts refuse to allow convictions based merely on the expression of ideas, no matter how alarming those ideas may be to some,” he said, “they vindicate the First Amendment’s core promise and demonstrate the strength of our system of government.”
Adeel Hassan, a New York-based reporter for The Times, covers breaking news and other topics.
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