Sentence next for Chicago activist with US immigration crime

DETROIT – A Palestinian activist from Chicago is returning to Detroit for a final court hearing before she’s eventually deported for concealing her convictions in two Jerusalem bombings.

Rasmea Odeh (OH’-duh) admits that she failed to disclose the convictions when she entered the U.S. and later went through the citizenship process in 2004. She’s not expected to get any time in prison Thursday but has agreed to be deported to Jordan or elsewhere.

In 1970, Odeh was convicted of two bombings, including one that killed two men at a supermarket in Jerusalem. She insists she was tortured by Israeli military into confessing.

Odeh was released in 1979 as part of a swap with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

In Chicago, she is widely respected for her work with Arab immigrants.