Sami al-Arian

Florida prosecutors today wrapped up their case against Sami Al-Arian, saying the former professor and his accomplices were "crime bosses" for terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad and just as guilty as those who actually committed murderous attacks against innocent civilians.

"The men of the PIJ you got to know in this case, they didn't strap bombs to their body. They leave that to somebody else," stated prosecutor Cherie Krigsman, according to the AP.

Al-Arian and three others have been on trial for five months, facing a 51-count indictment charging they operated a criminal racketeering enterprise that provided funding and organization for a global terror ring responsible for the deaths of 100 people in and around Israel, including two Americans.

Prosecutors liken the men's activities to directing violence carried out by the Mafia, hence the label "crime bosses."

Krigsman says Al-Arian, a former computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida, was a key figure in PIJ, a State Department-designated terror group.

"No doubt about it, Sami Al-Arian was upper-level management," she said.

The prosecutor's case involved hundreds of pages of documents as well as wiretaps of phone calls.

Krigsman closed her arguments by showing a videotape of an attack carried out by PIJ – a 1995 bombing of a bus in the Gaza Strip that killed eight people.

"Hot metal shrapnel, propelled at blinding speed, murdered her," Krigsman said, referring to an American who was killed in the attack, Alisa Flatow

Prosecutors says the defendants helped raise funds for terror attacks using a Tampa Palestinian charity and school founded by Al-Arian.

"There is a mountain of evidence in this case," Krigsman is quoted as saying.

Al-Arian's attorney, William Moffitt, will give closing arguments tomorrow. He rested his case without calling a single defense witness, saying the state failed to prove Al-Arian did "anything but speak."

If convicted, the defendants could receive life sentences.

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How U.S. extremists fund terror

University fires 'terror professor'