Several legal analysts and Al-Arian were convinced that Al-Arian, not Al-Najjar, was the focus of the Al-Najjar's court case.[36] On the advice of his attorney, Al-Arian cited the 5th Amendment to 99 of 102 questions.[34] Because Al-Najjar was a Palestinian born in Gaza during Egyptian control of the region, Al-Najjar essentially had no citizenship anywhere and the allegations that he was connected to terrorists had ruined attempts to find a country to take him, his wife, and three young daughters.[35] Al-Najjar was released in December 2000 after a judge ruled the government had no evidence to continue holding him.[37][38][notes 1] He overstayed his US student visa, and was deported in August 2002.[32]