ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Although he has never been charged with a crime and there is no evidence he's involved in terrorism, Mukkaram Ali, 26, has been imprisoned for more than a year and remains in jail today -- thanks in no small part to the wishes of terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui.

Over nine months, federal prosecutors have twice designated Ali a "material witness" because he let Moussaoui use his apartment, then they dropped that designation when no evidence surfaced that Ali knew of Moussaoui's alleged activities.

Now, in a twist, Moussaoui, accused of taking part in the Sept. 11 conspiracy, has filed a handwritten motion naming Ali as a possible witness for his defense. As a result, a judge is imprisoning Ali until he can testify, and that threatens to keep the former University of Oklahoma student jailed for the foreseeable future.

Of the hundreds of people swept up after the attacks, Ali appears to be in the strangest state of legal limbo; he is most likely the only material witness held at the behest of a terrorism suspect. Because the judge recently postponed Moussaoui's trial until June 30, Ali could remain behind bars until he testifies, making his total jail time about two years.

Ali is one of hundreds of Muslim or Middle Eastern men swept up in the Sept. 11 investigation. Many have been held for minor infractions of immigration standards, violations that often were overlooked before the terrorist attacks.

Zero-tolerance enforcement of such violations became a front-line defense in the domestic war on terrorism, despite the protests of civil libertarians, who believe the government has tilted too far in favor of security and away from constitutional rights.

After his arrest on Sept. 14, 2001, federal prosecutors designated Ali, along with an undisclosed number of immigration detainees and even some U.S. citizens, a material witness, records show.

The material-witness law allows the government to jail someone if prosecutors believe he has important information about a criminal investigation.

The government's use of the law is controversial, given that it has allowed prosecutors to incarcerate people in high-security prisons, including Ali, without charges and in near-total secrecy.

But Ali's case takes the process even a step further: After being cleared by prosecutors, he is now being kept in prison because of the wishes -- some would say the whims -- of a criminal defendant.

Ali may be the longest-held uncharged detainee connected with the Sept. 11 probe, although it is impossible to know for sure because the government refuses to release a list of detainees.

Ali is the only defense witness named by Moussaoui in publicly available court records.

Although his relationship with Moussaoui initially intrigued prosecutors, Ali has always insisted it was brief and innocuous, and investigators have presented nothing to contradict that.

Ali has told authorities that he allowed a friend, Hussein al-Attas (also spelled Alattas), and Moussauoi to stay at his apartment in Norman, Okla., for a few weeks during the summer of 2001, according to records obtained by the Chicago Tribune. Al-Attas was friendly with both Ali and Moussaoui, but it appears that Ali and Moussaoui were only casual acquaintances.

Al-Attas has said Moussaoui tried to recruit him into Islamic holy war, and has confessed that he lied to authorities about his relationship with the terror suspect. He is expected to be a government witness at Moussaoui's trial.

Ali, however, told authorities that he was living in nearby Oklahoma City while Moussaoui and al-Attas stayed at his Norman apartment, records show. Ali said he returned to the apartment only on the weekends. There has never been any evidence that Ali's relationship with Moussaoui ran deeper than the acquaintanceship, according to records and sources familiar with the case.

Moussaoui, sometimes dubbed the "20th hijacker," is defending himself against allegations that he was part of the Sept. 11 plot -- the only person in the U.S. charged with such complicity. Moussaoui has admitted his allegiance to Osama bin Laden but denies involvement in the hijacking conspiracy, and he faces a possible death sentence if convicted.

Serving as his own defense attorney since this summer, Moussaoui has become notorious for filing court motions filled with wit, disdain and venom, often citing conspiracies "to kill me." In one of his handwritten motions, which remains sealed from public view at the federal courthouse here, Moussaoui on Aug. 14 asked U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to "Stop the Deportation of Muslim Witness in My Favor," according to separate court records. Moussaoui was referring to Ali, who, once cleared by prosecutors as a material witness, was facing deportation to his native India.

Brinkema has agreed to Moussaoui's demand that Ali be kept in the country so he can testify at the trial. "Given the length of time the witness has remained in the United States, we find the additional months required to secure his live trial testimony to be insignificant," Brinkema ruled on Aug. 14.

Then she twice postponed the Moussaoui trial, and Ali would be called near the end of the proceeding in the summer.

Ronald Carlson, a law professor at the University of Georgia, said it is "a very rare occurrence" for a defendant to be able to keep an uncharged witness in jail. Many state material-witness laws specify that only the government can request that someone be held without charges.

When the government holds a witness, Carlson said, the courts have found the infringement of individual liberty is outweighed by society's need to solve a crime. In allowing a defendant to keep a potential witness jailed, he argued, there should at least be strong evidence that the witness' testimony is material to the defense.

According to legal experts, the judge could have Ali testify on videotape, then allow him to be freed and deported. Although she noted in her Aug. 14 ruling that it was possible for Ali to give a videotaped deposition, making his further detention unnecessary, Brinkema ruled that "live witness testimony is always preferable." Because his motion is sealed, Moussaoui's specific reasons for designating Ali as a defense witness remain a mystery, even to Ali's current court-appointed attorney.

Jeffrey Zimmerman, an attorney assigned to represent Ali when he was still designated a material witness, said he was not given a copy of Moussaoui's motion. Nor was he informed that his client's fate was under consideration, before Brinkema issued her Aug. 14 ruling.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the case.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE) According to jail and immigration records obtained by the Tribune, Ali was held first at the Oklahoma County Detention Center and then taken to New York as a material witness about Sept. 17, 2001.

About two months later, records show, prosecutors dropped the material-witness designation for Ali and placed him in immigration service custody, holding him at the high-security Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service was trying to deport Ali for violating the terms of his student visa by not enrolling in classes during the spring semester of 2001 at the Oklahoma City Community College, where he enrolled after getting poor marks at the University of Oklahoma, records show.

In late June, Ali again was designated a material witness and sent to Alexandria, according to sources familiar with the case. The government dropped the material-witness designation at roughly the same time Moussaoui filed his motion to stop Ali's deportation and secure his testimony, sources said.

According to Nichols, the New York immigration attorney who represented Ali, the government has never threatened to charge Ali with any crime.

Nor has the government ever submitted evidence that he had any terrorist links, Nichols said.

Because of the postponements after Brinkema's Aug. 14 ruling, attorneys working on Ali's behalf say they will press for the videotape testimony and could file a separate petition to independently seek his release.