Niraj Warikoo

Detroit Free Press

Rasmieh Odeh, 69, to be deported back to Jordan, but will face no jail or prison time

Rasmieh Odeh, a former Michigan resident whose case was fiercely contested by both sides of the Arab-Israeli dispute, will be deported back to Jordan but spared jail time under a plea deal struck today, her attorney said.

Odeh, 69, of Chicago, had been found guilty in 2014 in Detroit of lying on her application to enter the U.S. and be a U.S. citizen about her conviction in Israel in terror bombings in 1969. The former resident of Jackson was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision and sent the case back to Detroit, where she was set to get a new trial later this year.

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Today, she agreed to a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office, said her local attorney, Bill Goodman. A spokesman for the office in Detroit declined to comment.

"She will leave the country" and face no time in jail or prison, Goodman told the Free Press.

"Rasmieh is 69 years old," Goodman said. "Her trial was grueling and immensely difficult. She had to relive things she would rather not have to relive."

Odeh said that she was tortured while in Israeli custody and forced to confess to terrorist bombings she maintains she did not do. An Israeli official has told the Free Press the allegations of torture are not true.

"She had to relive the torture she suffered at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces, which was vicious and inhumane," Goodman said. "Rather than going through all that and putting herself and all her supporters through all that again, she decided this would be be the most peaceful course to take."

Supporters of Odeh said the plea deal was a good move because, they said, it would be difficult to get a fair trial, especially under the new administration.

"We knew that this was a very difficult case from the get-go," said Hatem Abudayyeh, of the Rasmea Defense Committee. "We know that a Palestinian who dedicated her entire life to the struggle for the liberation of Palestinians would have very difficult time getting a fair trial in the United States."

Prosecutors have said that Odeh was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the U.S. classifies as a terrorist group.

Odeh was convicted and imprisoned in Israel, accused of playing a role in the bombing of an Israeli supermarket that killed two civilians and an attempted attack on the British Consulate.

Odeh denies she was guilty in both acts, saying that she confessed after being tortured by Israeli officials. Odeh was not charged with terrorism in U.S. courts, only with immigration fraud for lying on government forms that ask immigrants if they've ever been convicted of a crime.

Odeh left Jordan for the U.S. in 1995, first living in Michigan. She was associate director at the Arab American Action Network in Chicago and attracted a wide following after she was charged by prosecutors in 2013.

She again drew controversy this year when she was one of eight women who signed an open call in the Guardian, a British newspaper, calling for the "Day Without Women" protests. Articles, including an op-ed in the New York Times, blasted her participation in the event, saying she was an extremist and a terrorist.

Prosecutors said she was a liar and wanted to send a message that potential terrorists can't lie about their pasts when trying to gain admission into the U.S. or to be a citizen. Federal prosecutors have said that allowing terrorists to enter the U.S. by lying about their pasts sets a dangerous precedent, citing the example of ISIS fighters trying to enter the U.S. by lying about their activities.

Her defenders say she fights for human rights, and spent years helping immigrants and women at the Arab American Action Network in Chicago.

"Rasmieh has lived a life of helping immigrants and other people and women in and around the Midwest and in Chicago ever since she came to the United States," Goodman said. "Why someone like that that was picked out and highlighted and vilified can only be viewed as part of an overall policy to vilify and destroy the Palestinian people."

U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin Drain has to approve the plea deal, said Goodman. A plea hearing is expected later.

Supporters have held rallies outside the Detroit courthouse during Odeh's court appearances, and are expected to rally again during the plea hearing, said Abudayyeh.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or 313-223-4792. Follow him on Twitter @nwarikoo