New trial ordered for convicted Palestinian terrorist who lied on U.S. citizenship application

Rasmieh Odeh, 69, was granted U.S. citizenship without disclosing her conviction by an Israeli military court for her involvement in two bombings, one of which killed two Israelis at a Supersol store in Jerusalem in 1969.

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JERUSALEM (JTA) — A federal judge in Detroit has ordered a new trial for a convicted Palestinian terrorist who lied on her application for U.S. citizenship.

Rasmieh Odeh, 69, of Chicago, was granted U.S. citizenship without disclosing her conviction by an Israeli military court for involvement in two bombings, one of which killed two Israelis at a supermarket in Jerusalem in 1969.

In the new trial, Odeh reportedly will be allowed to show she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder when she was interviewed in Detroit during the citizenship process. In February, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals found that testimony about her PTSD was wrongly excluded from her first trial.

Odeh, an associate director at the Arab American Action Network, was found guilty in November 2014 of covering up her conviction and imprisonment in Israel for bombing attacks when she entered the United States in 1995. She applied for citizenship in 2004.

Odeh, also known as Rasmea Yousef, was released from prison after 10 years in a prisoner swap between Israel and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Her new trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 10, 2017.

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