Convicted terrorist appeals US sentence for lying about past

10 June 2015, 3:30 pm

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A Chicago activist is appealing the 18-month prison sentence she was given for lying about her convictions for bombings in Israel when she sought US citizenship.

A federal judge in March also stripped Rasmieh Odeh of citizenship, meaning she’ll be deported, but she was allowed to remain free while she appealed.

Odeh’s lawyer says Tuesday’s appeal in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals asks for a sentence that includes no more time behind bars.

In this Monday, Nov. 10, 2014, file photo, Rasmieh Yousef Odeh, 67, of Chicago is interviewed outside federal court in Detroit, after the Palestinian immigrant was found guilty of immigration fraud for failing to disclose her conviction and imprisonment in a Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two people. (Photo credit: AP/Carlos Osorio)

Odeh was convicted of two bombings in Jerusalem in 1969, including one that killed two people at a market. But in 2004, she answered “no” on her US citizenship application when asked about any past criminal record.

She also didn’t disclose it a decade earlier when she was granted a visa.

— AP