Convicted bomber faces immigration fraud charges in Detroit

By Aaron Foley DETROIT (Reuters) - A Chicago woman convicted of a 1969 supermarket bombing in Israel and indicted on U.S. immigration fraud charges will appear in a status hearing in federal court in Detroit on Tuesday. Rasmieh Yousef Odeh, 66, was accused of immigration fraud and arrested at her home in October by federal agents. A federal indictment alleges she failed to reveal her criminal history when she immigrated from Jordan in 1995 and again when she was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2004. According to the federal indictment, Odeh and members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were convicted by an Israeli military court for the supermarket bombing, which killed two people, and for placing a bomb at the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh was sentenced to life in prison by Israeli authorities, but released after a decade as part of a prisoner exchange, the indictment says. During her almost two decades in the United States, Odeh established a life in Chicago and served as associate director of the Arab American Action Network, a Chicago area community organization, until her arrest. Odeh is scheduled to appear in court before Judge Gershwin Drain in Detroit. Another judge, Paul Borman, had been set to hear the case but he recused himself after learning his family had a financial stake in the bombed supermarket. She faces 10 years in prison and would lose her U.S. citizenship if convicted. (Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Mohammad Zargham)