Rasmea Odeh

Rasmea Yousef Odeh (born 1947 or 1948; also spelled Rasmieh; also known as Rasmea Yousef and Rasmieh Steve) is a Palestinian-American associate director at the Arab American Action Network in Chicago, Illinois. She was convicted in 1970 by an Israeli military court of involvement in fatal terrorist bombings, and in 2014 by a US federal jury of immigration fraud.

Odeh was sentenced to life in prison in Israel for her involvement in two terrorist bombings in Jerusalem in 1969, one of which killed two people, and involvement in an illegal organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). She spent 10 years in prison before she was released in a prisoner exchange with the PFLP in 1980.

Odeh was convicted of immigration fraud on November 10, 2014, by a jury in federal court in Detroit, Michigan, for concealing her arrest, conviction, and imprisonment for a fatal terrorist bombing. She was taken into custody on November 10 and released on bond pending sentencing on December 11, and faces up to ten years in prison, loss of her U.S. citizenship, and deportation when she is sentenced on March 12, 2015. Odeh's counsel maintains she did not receive a "full and fair trial" because the judge would not allow her to testify to her claim that she was tortured by the Israeli military, which he ruled irrelevant to the issue of whether she lied on her immigration application. On February 13, 2015, federal Judge Gershwin A. Drain denied Odeh's request that he either overturn the federal jury’s conviction of her or grant her a new trial. He ruled that her argument lacked legal merit, that evidence showed that Odeh illegally obtained U.S. citizenship by failing to disclose her conviction for the fatal bombings, that the jurors "clearly did not believe [her] explanation", and that "the evidence was more than sufficient to support the jury’s verdict."

Conviction of involvement in fatal bombing, and imprisonment, in Israel
Odeh was arrested in March 1969, and in 1970 was convicted and sentenced by an Israeli military court to life in prison for: (i) her involvement in two terrorist bombings in Jerusalem; and (ii) involvement in an illegal organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). She says she was convicted after she confessed. Odeh's legal representation disputes the veracity of her confession, based on her allegation that it was obtained after torture by the Israeli military. American federal prosecutors in a later case said that the Israeli investigators found "explosive bricks in her room" and "extensive bomb-making materials and explosives" at the time.

One of the bombings killed two Hebrew University students, roommates 21-year-old Leon Kanner of Netanya and 22-year-old Eddie Joffe of a Tel Aviv suburb, on February 21, 1969. The two were killed by a bomb that was placed in a crowded Jerusalem SuperSol supermarket which the two students stopped in at to buy groceries for a field trip. The same bomb wounded 9 others. A second bomb was found at the supermarket, and defused.

Odeh was also convicted of bombing and damaging the British Consulate four days later. Israeli authorities said the bombings were the work of the PFLP, which claimed credit for the bombings.

In 1980, Odeh was among 78 prisoners released by Israel in an exchange with the PFLP for one Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon. Odeh's lawyer claimed she testified at the United Nations about allegedly being tortured when she was released.

Entry into US; application for citizenship
In 1995, Odeh entered the United States from Jordan. At the time, according to her later federal indictment, she denied that she had "EVER" (in bold and capitalized on the form) been charged, convicted, or imprisoned for a crime.

The U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan said: "An individual convicted of a terrorist bombing would not be admitted to the United States if that information was known at the time of arrival." In 2004, Odeh applied to become a United States citizen. According to her indictment, on her immigration forms, she again answered "no" when asked if she had ever been convicted of a crime or spent time in prison; her defense attorneys claimed that she understood the form to be referring to her time in the United States.

Later in 2004 she was interviewed by a Detroit immigration officer, Jennifer Williams, who testified she always tells citizenship applicants that questions as to their criminal history applies to "anywhere in the world." Odeh would later claim in testimony that Williams didn't use those words. Odeh was sworn in as a naturalized US citizen on December 9, 2004.

She appeared in the 2004 documentary Women in Struggle by Buthina Canaan Khoury, about four Palestinian women activists who had been imprisoned in Israeli jails, which opponents of hers say evidences her role in the bombings. She became associate director of the Arab American Action Network in Chicago.

Conviction for immigration fraud in the US
Odeh was indicted on October 17, 2013, for concealing her arrest, conviction, and imprisonment in her application, and for lying as to where she had lived previously. She was arrested five days later at her home in Evergreen Park, Illinois, in the Chicago area.

In May 2014, Odeh rejected a pre-trial offer from federal prosecutors that would have limited any prison sentence to a maximum of six months and, after that, allowed her to remain free (for a maximum of six months) until her deportation. She said that she felt it was not in her best interest, and preferred the case to go to trial.

In August 2014, the first judge assigned to the case, federal district court Judge Paul Borman, recused himself of his own accord after he learned that his family had held investments in the Jerusalem supermarket that Odeh and others were convicted of bombing in 1969. He stated that his financial ties "could be perceived as establishing a reasonably objective inference of a lack of impartiality in the context of the issues presented in this case." He had refused an earlier request by Odeh's lawyers that he step down from the case on the basis of an award by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit for supporting Israel, that his family had raised more than $3 million for a pro-Israeli charity, and that he had made many trips to Israel. He said that Odeh's lawyers had confused him with a cousin in some of their accusations and misrepresented him in others, and were engaged in "careless and rank speculation" for suggesting that he could not be impartial in the case, stating that: "a judge’s prior activities relating to his religious convictions are not a valid basis for questioning his impartiality in a particular case".

Odeh was tried in November 2014 for immigration fraud before a federal jury in Detroit, Michigan, with Judge Gershwin A. Drain presiding. She was accused of concealing her role in the deadly bombing in Israel, and her arrest, conviction, and imprisonment, when she filed US immigration papers. Odeh was also accused of lying in her immigration papers about her prior residency, falsely claiming that she had lived only in Jordan from 1948 until her application.

Before trial, her defense argued that Odeh suffered from chronic post traumatic stress disorder as a result of torture she said she endured during her time in Israeli detention. However, Judge Drain ruled before trial that evidence of claimed torture and PTSD would not be allowed into the trial, as he held them to be irrelevant to whether Odeh lied on her immigration documents.

Odeh was convicted of immigration fraud on November 10, 2014, in federal court in Detroit for concealing her arrest, conviction, and imprisonment for a fatal terrorist bombing. Judge Drain told the jury: "I think your verdict is a fair and reasonable one based on the evidence that came in."

She had her bail revoked and was taken into custody upon the conclusion of her trial on November 10, as the judge found her to be a flight risk, and was incarcerated in Port Huron, Michigan. On December 8, Judge Drain agreed to let her be released on a $50,000 cash bond, pending sentencing, and her release pending sentencing was effected on December 11. Her defense lawyers plan to appeal the verdict.

On February 13, 2015, Judge Drain denied Odeh's request that he either overturn the federal jury’s conviction of her or grant her a new trial, ruling that her argument lacked legal merit. The judge held that evidence showed that Odeh illegally obtained U.S. citizenship by failing to disclose her conviction for the fatal bombings, that the jurors "clearly did not believe [her] explanation", and that "the evidence was more than sufficient to support the jury’s verdict."

Odeh faces up to 10 years in prison, revocation of her U.S. citizenship, and deportation from the United States when she is sentenced on March 10, 2015.