Deported Chinese Student Wants to Fight Charges of 'Terroristic' Acts

BEIJING, Sept. 3, 2010 -- Search Stevens Institute of Technology's website for the name "Zhai Tiantian" and the search will return three hits for various Dean's Lists and two for graduate teaching assistants.

Google Zhai Tiantian and it's a different story. Up pop news headlines with words like "Chinese Ph.D. student," "deportation" and "terrorist threat."

Zhai left his home in Xi'an, China, to enroll at Stevens, a university in New Jersey, in 2000. After earning his undergraduate degree and two masters degrees, Zhai began his doctorate in engineering. He spent seven years at Stevens, calling it his "second home."

The former doctoral candidate was arrested April 15, 2010 on charges of making a terroristic threat for allegedly threatening to burn down a campus building.

"From my perspective, they arrested me for something I didn't commit," Zhai, 27, told ABC News. "I didn't threaten to burn the school whatsoever. They took something I said out of context."

After four months in the Hudson County Correctional Center in Kearny, N.J., Zhai returned to Beijing Aug. 10 on "voluntary departure" after his student visa was canceled. He has yet to be indicted for criminal charges for making a terroristic threat, according to his lawyer Hai Ming.

"That charge is very difficult to prove," Hai said in a phone interview. "All [the prosecution] has is one witness on the phone who answered the call."

"The accused has the right to face his accuser," Zhai told ABC News. "I will go back to fight for my rights. I need my innocence. I have to clear my name. I need a formal apology from the school."

Debbie Simon, assistant prosecutor for Hudson County, N.J., told ABC News that Zhai was not accused of being a terrorist.

"People sometimes confuse 'terroristic threats' with what we think of as terrorism," Simon said. "The term 'terroristic threats' predates the creation of the 'terrorist' as a post 9/11, post-Munich Olympics idea. Generally, the idea comes from instilling terror in the victim. If you threaten to burn down a building, that can be a terroristic threat."

She also elaborated on Zhai's voluntary departure from the U.S.

"Voluntary departure means once he was ordered deported, he didn't contest it. It doesn't mean he just decided to leave the country on his own," Simon said.

While Zhai wants to return to the U.S. to contest the charges against him, Simon said, "If we had him deported it's safe to assume we don't want him back to stand trial."

Zhai speculates his suspension from Stevens was related to harassment charges filed by a female graduate school instructor at a university in New York City. Zhai said his Ph.D. advisor introduced him to the woman. They exchanged text messages and phone calls, Zhai said, and they met for lunch once. Hai claims the case was dismissed and Zhai was cleared of all charges.