TAMPA, Fla., May 1 – Although the United States government lost most of its case last year against Sami Al-Arian, the former computer science professor it once identified as the linchpin in a terrorist organization, a federal judge sentenced him on Monday to an additional 19 months in prison before he is deported.

The case against Mr. Al-Arian, a Palestinian born in Kuwait, stemmed from a decade-long investigation that resulted in a 2003 indictment, charging him with being the leader of a domestic cell of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group that claims responsibility for terrorist acts. He has remained in jail since his indictment.

Mr. Al-Arian, who had been under surveillance by American intelligence officials since 1991, was accused of raising money for suicide bombings in and around Israel.

The six-month trial, a centerpiece of the Bush administration’s antiterrorism efforts that attracted the intense interest of legal experts, ended in December when the anonymous jury acquitted Mr. Al-Arian of 8 of the 17 federal charges against him, deadlocking on the rest.

Rather than face a retrial, the two sides agreed last month to a plea bargain in which Mr. Al-Arian pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aiding members of the militant Palestinian group and agreed to be deported.

But any hope Mr. Al-Arian might have had of being deported quickly evaporated on Monday in the courtroom of Judge James S. Moody Jr. of Federal District Court. In a surprise move, Judge Moody sentenced Mr. Al-Arian to the maximum allowed under the sentencing guidelines, more than even the prosecution requested, and chided him for acts even the jury had rejected as Mr. Al-Arian’s. The government had asked for the low end of the guidelines.

The judge continued to upbraid Mr. Al-Arian, whom he called a “master manipulator” for his connections to the Palestinian group, leading Mr. Al-Arian’s wife to leave in tears.

Describing horrific bombings in Israel, Judge Moody said: “Anyone with even the slightest bit of human compassion would be sickened. Not you. You saw it as an opportunity to solicit more money to carry out more bombings.”

He added, “The only connection to widows and orphans is that you create them.”

Paul Perez, the United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida, called Mr. Al-Arian a “dangerous human being” and said he had no regrets about the way the case was prosecuted.

Mr. Perez’s court appearance on Monday was his first in the case in four years. He painted the outcome as a victory for the government because it “identified and dismantled a cell that Al-Arian helped establish.”

Nonetheless, the jury verdict, which embarrassed prosecutors who had devoted considerable resources to the case, underscored the complexities of obtaining convictions under the USA Patriot Act and other recent laws that criminalized aiding organizations that the United States has deemed to be based on terror.

For example, in the 30 previous efforts to convict a defendant of conspiring to contribute money to a terrorist organization – one of the charges against Mr. Al-Arian – 28 were dismissed, according to the Terrorism Research Center at the University of Arkansas.

“This case almost reached the level of seditious conspiracy,” Brent Smith, director of the center, said. “And historically, we have been very unsuccessful at trying those cases.”

Indeed the outcome of the case against Mr. Al-Arian did little to resolve the conflicting portraits of his life. His supporters described Mr. Al-Arian, 48, as a political scapegoat who merely aided women and children who had been harmed in the Middle East. They said he was a thoughtful advocate for Palestinians who were unaware of or unwilling to accept the violent acts of organizations he assumed were simply providing aid to countrymen.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft and local officials described Mr. Al-Arian as a supporter of terror whose motives and beliefs were elucidated through his own words and deeds. Prosecutors said he helped finance activities like a suicide bombing at an Israeli bus stop in 1995 that killed 19 people.

In brief remarks before the court, Mr. Al-Arian painted himself on Monday as a patriot who was pleased to have raised five children in the United States, and grateful to its legal system.

“This process affirmed my belief in the true meaning of the democratic society,” he said, as his wife, dabbing her eyes, looked on from the courtroom.

After the sentencing, Mr. Al-Arian’s supporters, who had lined up for a space in the courtroom, denounced the judge’s action. They included clergy members from Christian and Muslim groups, family members and advocates for Islamic causes.

“I have been visiting with Sami Al-Arian every week in the jail for the last 14 months,” said the Rev. Warren Clark, the pastor of the First United Church of Tampa. “I will tell you that the Sami Al-Arian that I know is very different from the Sami Al-Arian the judge described.”

It is unclear what country will agree to take Mr. Al-Arian when he is deported. He was reared in Egypt, but has spent the last 30 years in the United States.