Jury Deliberations Begin in Irvine 11 Case

Irvine - Jury deliberations began this afternoon in the trial of 10 students accused of disrupting the Israeli ambassador to the United States' speech at UC Irvine last year.

The students, many of whom belonged to the Muslim Student Union on campus, "meticulously" planned the interruptions of Michael Oren's speech last year and one of the activists afterward boasted, "We pretty much shut them down," Deputy District Attorney Dan Wagner said in arguing they should be found guilty of violating laws governing conduct at public meetings.

Defense attorneys countered in their closing arguments that just because the students planned to protest the meeting doesn't mean they are guilty of the misdemeanor charges they are facing for interrupting Oren's speech on the UCI campus on Feb. 8, 2010.

The defense attorneys also argued the students carried out a peaceful protest that did not prevent Oren from speaking.

Wagner has to prove to jurors that the students were aware of the rules, conspired to break them and had no other outlet to carry out their protest.

Wagner argued Monday that UCI professor Mark Petracca clearly laid out the rules for the audience listening to Oren's speech after a few of the students stood up and hollered out slogans before being led out by campus police.

After more interruptions, UCI Chancellor Michael Drake criticized the protesters for "embarrassing" the university and explained what was expected of the audience, Wagner said.

By continuing to protest by individually standing up minutes apart and briefly yelling at the ambassador, the students committed a crime, Wagner argued. Thirty-five minutes into the event, Oren was 2 minutes and 21 seconds into his speech due to all the interruptions, he said.

"I submit to you that is substantial interference with a meeting," he said. "The show could not go on."

Defense attorney Dan Mayfield argued that the protests altogether took about 4 minutes and 35 seconds, but added, "Let's call it five minutes."

The event was supposed to run from 5:30 to 7 p.m., but a private gathering with Oren and campus supporters went long, Mayfield said. He also argued that the students readily and without incident surrendered to campus police, and the walkout of all of the students' supporters happened just after 6:30 p.m., before the event was supposed to end, so Oren had time to finish his "canned speech."

Defense attorney Reem Salahi argued that the students were warned before the event that no disruptions would be tolerated, meaning they were effectively denied an outlet for their free-speech rights, which should lead to an acquittal.

Seven of the defendants are UC Irvine students -- Mohamad Mohy-Eldeen Abdelgany, 23; Aslam Abbasi Akhtar, 23; Joseph Tamim Haider, 23; Mohammad Uns Qureashi, 19; Ali Mohammad Sayeed, 23; Osama Ahmen Shabaik, 22; and Asaad Mohamedidris Traina, 19.

Three defendants are UC Riverside students -- Khalid Gahgat Akari, 19; Taher Mutaz Herzallah, 21; and Shaheen Waleed Nassar, 21.

The students are each charged with one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to disturb a meeting and one misdemeanor count of disturbing a meeting.

An 11th defendant, UC Irvine student Hakim Nasreddine Kebir, will have his case dismissed if he completes 40 hours of community service by Friday.

If convicted, each student could be sentenced to up to six months in jail, probation with community service or fines.