LOS ANGELES - A federal judge ruled Friday that a Palestinian man whom the government had denied citizenship based on alleged ties with a terrorist group should become a citizen, the man"s lawyers said.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that Aiad Barakat, one of the so-called "L.A. eight," will be naturalized, said Ahilan Arulanantham, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who litigated the case.

Barakat"s citizenship application had been denied last year by immigration officials, and his lawyers appealed in federal court.

"The judge listened and found him to be credible," said Arulanantham. "It was very fact intensive testimony that would be very difficult to reverse on appeal."

Whether the government would appeal was unclear. Messages left with the U.S. Justice Department after business hours Friday were not immediately returned. Calls to Wilson"s office Friday were also not returned.

Barakat, a 45-year-old construction site supervisor who lives in Arcadia, said he was elated.

"It feels like the nightmare is over and the dream is right in front of me now," said Barakat in a phone interview. "Now I"m going to return home and see my mom, who I haven"t seen in 25 years."

The case of the "L.A. eight" goes back to 1987, when Barakat, six other Palestinians and a Kenyan were arrested for alleged associations with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The PFLP has opposed peace negotiations between the PLO and Israel, and the U.S. government considers it a terrorist organization. All eight have denied being members.

In 1997, Barakat and another Palestinian in the group were granted legal residency after the government had initially tried to deport all eight.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said two of the Palestians were currently in deportation hearings. The immigration status of the others was not immediately known.

The group won a victory in 1989 when a judge struck down as unconstitutional portions of a federal law that allowed deportation to be based on political affiliation and advocacy.

Government lawyers had argued Barakat lied during immigration interviews seeking citizenship. They said Barakat stated he did not know whether a man he had met with at a rally in support of Palestinians, Ali Kased, was a high-ranking member of the Palestinian movement.

When Kased died last year, an obituary in a PFLP magazine identified him as a longtime member who had founded a PFLP branch in the United States, according to government lawyers.

Barakat"s attorneys argued he had a right to engage in political activity, and may not have remembered the 1985 meeting when questioned by immigration officials.