Man convicted of bombing Israeli bus stripped of US citizenship

Fifty-one-year-old Vallmoe Shqaire of California to be imprisoned, deported to Jordan for lying to immigration authorities about his role in 1988 terrorist attack

Illustrative: A PLO supporter in the West Bank, January 5, 1988. A 50-year-old California man was stripped of his US citizenship on Friday for lying to immigration authorities when he became a citizen about his conviction for an attempted 1988 PLO terrorist bombing. (AP Photo/Anat Givon)
Illustrative: A PLO supporter in the West Bank, January 5, 1988. A 50-year-old California man was stripped of his US citizenship on Friday for lying to immigration authorities when he became a citizen about his conviction for an attempted 1988 PLO terrorist bombing. (AP Photo/Anat Givon)

LOS ANGELES, California — A Southern California man who was imprisoned in Israel for trying to bomb a bus has been sentenced in the US for lying to immigration authorities when he became a citizen.

Fifty-one-year-old Vallmoe Shqaire of Downey, California was sentenced to nine months in federal prison Friday for unlawfully procuring US citizenship in 2008. He was also stripped of his citizenship and will be deported to Jordan.

Shqaire spent four years in prison in Israel for helping in the 1988 attempted roadside bombing of a bus. The pipe bomb exploded but nobody was hurt. At that time, Shqaire had ties to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was then considered a terrorist organization by the US.

Shqaire pleaded guilty in January to concealing the bombing conviction and PLO ties on his citizenship application.

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