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Rasmea Odeh sentenced to 18 months in prison

Rasmea Odeh sentenced to 18 months in prison

Immigration fraudster who concealed Israeli bombing conviction also has U.S. citizenship revoked and will be deported.
Posted by Thursday, March 12, 2015 at 01:08pm
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[Note: We will add video and a report from a Legal Insurrection correspondent at the court house as an Update later.] (Video here)

Rasmea Odeh was convicted in Israel of the 1969 bombing of the Super Sol supermarket in Jerusalem, in which Hebrew University students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner were killed, in addition to the attempted bombing of the British Consulate.

Rasmea served 10 years of a life sentence before being released in a prisoner exchange in 1979 for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon. Rasmea later immigrated to the United States, where she has made Chicago her home since the mid-1990s.

In November 2014, Rasmea was convicted in federal court in Detroit of falsely procuring naturalization, by concealing her Israeli convictions and incarceration.

The evidence supporting both the Israeli and Detroit convictions is overwhelming and from multiple sources, as I demonstrated in Rasmea Odeh rightly convicted of Israeli supermarket bombing and U.S. immigration fraud. Rasmea’s claim that she confessed to the bombing only after several weeks of sexual torture was contradicted by the fact that she confessed one day after arrest, and by corroborating evidence including a filmed interview years later with a co-conspirator.

The prosecution sought a 5-7 year sentence on the immigration charge, well beyond the 12-21 month guidelines, based in part of Rasmea obstructing justice in the case by lying during testimony and disobeying the Judge’s instructions not to testify as to her alleged torture.

The families of the bombing victims submitted letters to the court, one of which called the Judge’s attention to my post documenting Rasmea’s guilt in the bombing and false claims as to the confession.

The Judge just ruled this morning, sentencing Rasmea to 18 months in prison, revocation of citizenships plus judicially-ordered deportation at the end of prison to Jordan, and fines. (See Twitter stream below)

This is something of a victory for Rasmea, as she avoided the longer prison sentence and remains free on bond pending appeal. It will be many months if not years before she sees a prison cell.

While Rasmea was lucky to avoid a longer sentence, her supporters are predictably infuriated. (See tweets at bottom of post.)

Based on tweets from a Northwestern Univ. journalism student in the courthouse, it appears the Judge accepted that Rasmea obstructed justice, though it didn’t influence the sentence:

The defense counsel made a highly political appeal, portraying Rasmea as a freedom fighter:

The prosecution showed video screenshots we also have posted previously:

Rasmea then addressed the court:

The Judge then ruled:

Reaction from Rasmea Supporters:

Here are some key case documents filed today, the Order Revoking Citizenship, Judicial Order of Removal, and Odeh’s Consent to the Order of Removal (which waives any right to contest deportation assuming the conviction is upheld):

Rasmieh Odeh Case – Order Revoking U.S. Citizenship by Legal Insurrection


Rasmieh Odeh Case – Judicial Order of Removal by Legal Insurrection


Rasmieh Odeh Case – Defendant's Consent to Judicial Order of Removal by Legal Insurrection

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Comments

MJN1957 | March 12, 2015 at 1:37 pm

Well, with our secure borders I’m sure she will be kept out of the country a solid 30 min, maybe up-to a whole hour!

Ragspierre | March 12, 2015 at 2:09 pm

My only question was, “What did Jordan do to piss off Judge Drain?”

Why not Iraq?

faboutlaws | March 12, 2015 at 2:13 pm

It will take approximately one and a half to two years to resolve an appeal to the Sixth Circuit. I doubt SCOTUS will grant cert because there are no serious issues on appeal. She’s old, perhaps too old to re-establish a meaningful life in Jordan. Delaying will not help her on this issue. She should voluntarily do her time now and leave the country. Her appeal could still go on, but it’s a dead bang loser. I hope Obama doesn’t pardon her.

RuthC | March 12, 2015 at 2:25 pm

I want to applaud Prof. Jacobson and LI for the reporting on this case. The judge is right, it is not about “politics”. It is about human rights and justice for the most basic human right, the right to life. Nobody else cares about the victims or the manipulation of justice by fraud and deceit. It is chilling that the Rasmea supporters cannot spare a moment of silence for the victims as they cheer for their “heroine”. It is chilling that these concerns are not reflected in the mainstream media.
I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to say that with these LI posts, the mantle of human rights advocacy that has been for so long thought of as the exclusive provenance of the political left, has passed to the right.

Thank you very much to Prof. Jacobson and the LI team.

Gremlin1974 | March 12, 2015 at 5:48 pm

I am actually fine with the 18 month prison sentence, that is just less time that the tax payers of the US will have to pay to feed and house this terrorist trash.

One question, does her having her citizenship revoked and deported preclude her from returning to the US? (Assuming that everything is upheld on the appeal?)

Walker Evans | March 12, 2015 at 11:42 pm

This piece of trash planted at least two bombs, one of which killed two college boys. When caught she gave a full confession within 18 hours, including details that would have been unknown to anyone not involved. Because things were so volatile at that point in time the International Red Cross had observers in the courtroom during the trial; they stated that there were no problems with the way the trial was conducted and that Rasmieh was given all considerations and a good defense. Based on the facts, supported by her voluntary confession, she was convicted.

Now she claims that her confession was obtained only after weeks of “sexual torture”, that she was not given counsel before or during the trial, and that she basically never even knew what the word ‘bomb’ meant or what a “Supersol” was. And she has a legion of supporters that have bought this trainload of organic fertilizer and are mindlessly spreading it around as if it were The Word Anointed!

There are undoubtedly some pro-Palestinian zealots involved in this, but what of the vast majority of her supporters? How have we managed to grow an entire generation that is so gullible and so easily manipulated by nearly any snake-oil hustler that comes around? They vilify police officers (and Neighborhood Watch members) who refuse to let themselves be murdered, then turn around and scream about the supposed injustice being done when a real murderer is exposed!

I’m really afraid we may be hearing Taps being played for the country of my birth.

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