Judge allows bond for activist who hid bombing role
DETROIT - An Arab-American activist convicted of failing to tell U.S. immigration officials about her conviction for a fatal bombing in Israel can be released from jail if she comes up with $50,000 cash.
A Detroit federal judge on Monday reversed his earlier decision denying bond to Rasmieh Odeh of Evergreen Park while she awaits her sentence in March. Judge Gershwin Drain says he no longer believes the 67-year-old will flee.
Drain cites Odeh's dedication to community work in Chicago, where she runs the daily operations of the Arab American Action Network.
A jury convicted Odeh of failing to disclose her conviction for bombings in Israel in 1969 when she applied for citizenship in Detroit in 2004. She says she believed the questions were related to U.S. criminal history.
Odeh has been in a county jail since Nov. 10.
She spent a decade in an Israeli prison after being convicted of a series of bombings in Jerusalem, including one explosive that killed two people at a supermarket. Odeh says she was tortured into confessing to the crimes.
Israel released her as part of a prisoner exchange with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.