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.

Zhai Tiantian Says He Threatened to Bring 'War' to School

Because of the harassment charges, Zhai was asked to discuss his behavior with Stevens' Assistant Vice President Joseph Stahley in March 2010, and Zhai admits that he was disrespectful to Stahley during the hearing.

"[Zhai] is not a violent person," Hai said. "He's just… immature… couldn't hold his emotions. He argued with a vice president, openly criticized him. He made an enemy with a powerful person."

On March 11, Zhai was suspended indefinitely after an investigation concluded he was "a danger and threat to the Stevens community," Zhai claimed. Stevens denied Zhai's appeal and he was notified on April 14 that the school was going to cancel his student visa. After learning he had a week to leave the United States, Zhai called Stevens administration.

"I said, 'I guess they want war, I'll give them war,'" Zhai said, referring to the phone call. "'I'll burn the place to the ground by lawsuit and bring such matter [sic] to the media.'"

Neither Stahley nor Stevens Vice President Maureen Weatherall responded to calls from ABC News. Instead, Stevens representative Michael Schinelli wrote in an email, "We have no comment at this time."

Zhai spent four months in Hudson County Correctional Center before his court date. His friend, Wang Mei Ying, helped him contact his lawyer and parents in China.

"All the inmates call it 'Hostage County,'" Zhai said. "Once you get in, you don't get out."

According to Hai, the prosecution offered two plea bargains, first reducing "terroristic threat" to a misdemeanor and then to "petty disorderly conduct."

Upon rejecting both pleas, original charges were restored. Despite the prosecutor's statement that Hudson County would not have deported Zhai if they wanted him back for a trial, Hai believes prosecutors will present the case to the New Jersey grand jury for indictment in September. Hai has requested that Zhai be allowed to testify in the grand jury hearing.

Deported Student to Finish Ph.D. in China

Hai blamed Zhai's legal problems on his vulnerable position as an international student and his client's immaturity.

"If he was more mature and socially smarter, then this horrible situation might've been avoided," Hai said.

Zhai said he was "bullied a lot" upon his arrival in prison, but used his artistic talents to make Mother's Day and thank you cards for inmates.

"That was my way of earning some food or protection," he said.

The doctoral candidate described his return home as "bittersweet," and plans to finish his Ph.D. in China.

"Tiantian made some mistakes, but he doesn't deserve this treatment," Hai said. "He doesn't deserve four months in jail, to be interrupted from his Ph.D. study, to be sent back to China in handcuffs and shackles in humiliation."

ABC News' Russell Goldman contributed to this report