Rasmea Odeh accepts plea deal avoiding jail
Palestinian activist Odeh will be stripped of US citizenship and forced to leave country, but she will not serve prison time
Odeh was tortured in Israeli prison (MEE)
Ali Harb-Thursday 23 March 2017
Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh accepted a plea deal that would end her long legal battle with the US government.
As a part of the agreement, Odeh would avoid prison time but also lose her US citizenship and leave the country.
In 2014, Odeh was convicted of unlawful procurement of US citizenship and sentenced to 18 months in prison. That conviction, however, was overturned by an court of appeals last year.
As a Palestinian who has dedicated her life to the cause of liberation, it is impossible for Rasmea to expect a fair trial in US courts.-The Rasmea Defense Committee
Odeh was charged because she failed to disclose on her US naturalisation application that she was jailed for 10 years in Israel after a military court found her guilty of involvement in a 1969 super market bombing in Jerusalem. She says the Israeli case was based on a forced confession obtained by torture that included sexual assault.
She won appeal in the US case because the judge had omitted evidence of torture in Israel from her 2014 trial. The defence wanted to argue that Odeh suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which affected her mental state while answering the naturalisation form questions.
The Rasmea Defense Committee said in a statement that avoiding jail was a “victory” for Odeh.
The committee cited the slim chances for acquittal in the new trial, which was set for May.
“As a Palestinian who has dedicated her life to the cause of liberation, it is impossible for Rasmea to expect a fair trial in U.S. courts,” the group said in a statement.
The prosecution had added an indictment that frames the accusations against Odeh as terrorism, rather than immigration fraud.
The Defense Committee also said the prosecution may be more vicious under the "regime of racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions".
"There is the great likelihood that a jury would be prejudiced by hearing the zionist Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel call Rasmea a 'terrorist' and her supporters 'mobs and hordes,' as he has done many times before," the statement said.
There was also the fear that Odeh would be held by immigration authorities after serving her sentence if she gets convicted.
“Under this current, racist political climate, and facing 18 months or more of imprisonment, as well as the possibility of indefinite detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Rasmea has made the difficult decision to accept a plea agreement,” the Defense Committee said.
Odeh’s supporters had organised a political movement around her case, holding protests outside the courthouse in Detroit each time she appeared before a judge.
They believed the charges against her were politically motivated -- a “witch hunt” aimed to deal a blow to Palestinian activism in the United States.
US Judge Gershwin Drain will set a date to consider the plea agreement. Odeh’s supporters have vowed to gather in Detroit to stand with the Palestinian activist on what could be her last day in US court.
