Tampa, Fla. ? A deported Palestinian professor who had been jailed on secret evidence that prosecutors said linked him to terrorism landed Saturday in Beirut, Lebanon, supporters said.

Mazen Al-Najjar was granted a six-month visa, and arrangements have been made for him to move permanently from Lebanon to another country, his brother-in-law, Sami Al-Arian, said at a news conference.

Sami Al-Arian describes the journey of his brother-in-law Mazen Al-Najjar. Al-Najjar, who had been jailed on secret evidence that prosecutors said linked him to terrorism, was deported and landed Saturday in Lebanon.

Al-Arian said he wouldn’t disclose which country for fear the nation would rescind the visa.

“He’s extremely happy and he said to me he can now resume his intellectual activity,” Al-Arian said.

In a statement released earlier in the day, Al-Najjar said he was pleased “to be free.”

Al-Najjar, who has a doctorate in engineering, spent more than 3 1/2 years in jail on secret evidence that prosecutors said linked him to terrorism. He was released in 2000, then arrested again in November and detained until he was deported on Thursday.

The deportation order says he overstayed a visa issued 20 years ago. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Rodney Germain said he couldn’t immediately discuss the deportation.

“I’d like everyone to know that I never hurt a human being or animal in my life,” Al-Najjar said in the statement. “What happened to me was unjust and wrong, but I’m not bitter and I forgive.”

He has repeatedly denied any connection to terrorists.

Al-Najjar initially was granted a two-week tourist visa by Bahrain, which allowed the federal authorities to put him on a plane. But Bahrain balked, causing the plane to be rerouted to Ireland and finally to Italy on Friday night, the St. Petersburg Times reported Saturday.

Jamal Rowaie, second secretary at the Embassy of Bahrain in Washington, told the Times that Al-Najjar’s deportation by the United States and the publicity his case had generated had influenced Bahrain’s decision to turn away the professor.

Al-Najjar, with his brother-in-law Sami Al-Arian, founded the World and Islam Studies Enterprises, a now-defunct Islamic think tank at the University of South Florida that was raided by the FBI in 1995. In addition, a former head of WISE who left in 1995, Ramadan Abdulah Shallah, later resurfaced as head of the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al-Arian, a computer science professor, has been on paid leave from the university since an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

On the show, he was quizzed about links to terrorists, and asked about tapes from the late 1980s and early 1990s in which he is believed to have said “Death to Israel” in Arabic.

Al-Arian has said that he has never advocated violence against others and that his words were a statement against Israeli occupation.