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Steven Emerson,
Executive Director
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February 13, 2015
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Judge
Slams Rasmieh Odeh's Request for New Trial
by IPT News • Feb 13, 2015 at
11:57 am
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Saying defense attorneys have merely rehashed old arguments on which
he's already ruled, a federal judge on Friday rejected a request to either grant Rasmieh Odeh a new
trial or overturn the jury's November conviction.
Odeh, 67, was found guilty Nov. 10 on one count of naturalization
fraud for failing to disclose her Israeli convictions for leading a 1969
Jerusalem grocery store bombing plot that left two college students dead.
Odeh claimed her convictions were a product of mistreatment in Israeli
custody.
In applications to come to the United States on a visa in 1995, and to become an American citizen in 2004, Odeh claimed she
had never been arrested, convicted or imprisoned. At various times, she claimed she thought the question
only pertained to her time in the United States, or didn't mention the
Israeli case because she felt it was an unjust verdict.
Her naturalization fraud case prompted a national campaign to cast Odeh as a victim of persecution and to pressure
prosecutors into dropping the charge.
Defense attorneys asked for a new trial, saying U.S. District Judge
Gershwin A. Drain erred in pre-trial rulings which aimed at keeping the
case focused on what Odeh told U.S. immigration officials and not re-trying
her Israeli terrorism case. One ruling barred expert testimony which would
have claimed Odeh suffered post-traumatic stress from her time in Israeli
custody.
Drain seemed frustrated by the defense motion, describing it as "so lacking in legal authority
and argument, it should be denied on this basis alone. Defendant claims the
Court committed nine legal errors, yet fails to cite a single case,
statute, rule or other authority supporting her assertion. Defendant did
not even include the legal standard for granting new trials. Nor does she
develop her arguments in any meaningful way."
He pointed to trial testimony from immigration officers who said visa
applicants and immigrants applying for naturalization are denied if it is
known they had convictions for crimes like murder and terrorism.
Jurors believed those officials and "clearly did not believe
Defendant's explanation" about misunderstanding the questions, Drain
wrote. "[T]he evidence was more than sufficient to support the jury's
verdict."
Odeh is scheduled to be sentenced March 12 in Detroit. She faces a
maximum of 10 years in prison and will lose her American citizenship.
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