Lawyer: Palestinian community activist unfairly targeted
By Lauren Zumbach
Tribune reporter
4:51 p.m. CST, November
12, 2013
Lawyers for an Evergreen Park woman facing
immigration fraud charges alleged today she has been unfairly targeted
in a politically motivated prosecution that is an attempt to intimidate
activists opposed to U.S. and Israeli policies in the Mideast.
“The government cannot pick and choose who they prosecute based on
religion, race or political beliefs,” Michael Deutsch, a member of
Rasmieh Yousef Odeh’s legal team, said at a press conference at his law
offices.
The 66-year-old Odeh, a longtime activist in Chicago’s Palestinian
community, is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges tomorrow in
federal court in Detroit.
According to Odeh’s indictment, she was convicted in Israel for her
involvement in two bombings carried out on behalf of the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine in 1969. One, at a Jerusalem
supermarket, killed two people and injured several others. She was
sentenced to life imprisonment, but her sentence was commuted after 10
years as part of a prisoner exchange.
The indictment alleges she concealed the conviction and her time in
prison when she applied for a visa in 1995 and applied for U.S.
citizenship in 2004.
Deutsch argued that it was “unfair” to question her application
after she was granted citizenship and added that her alleged failure to
disclose her imprisonment “is not a lie if you interpret it in the
proper way,” arguing that many Palestinians were unjustly imprisoned.
Hatem Abudayyeh, director of the Arab American Action Network, where
he worked with Odeh, said he believes officials re-examined Odeh’s
citizenship application after the FBI raided the homes of 23 activists,
including Abudayyeh’s, in 2010.
“It’s overreaching to accuse her of anything but being a productive
citizen,” said Abudayyeh, who is also leader of the pro-Palestine
group, Committee to Stop FBI Repression.
Activists who’ve worked with Odeh gathered at the People’s Law
Office for the press conference here while Odeh met with lawyers in
Detroit. Abudayyeh said he expected about 100 Chicagoans to travel to
her arraignment Wednesday to show support.
If convicted, Odeh faces up to 10 years in prison and the loss of
her citizenship, authorities have said.
Copyright © 2013 Chicago Tribune Company, LLC
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