Posted on 08/03/2004 10:54:20 AM PDT by jimbo123
A man arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in July pleaded not guilty to charges he lied to federal authorities about his travels to Iraq.
Ali Mohammed Abboud Almosaleh entered his plea Tuesday in federal court. He is charged with three counts of lying to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents.
A public defender was appointed for Almosaleh. He also faces a detention hearing on Friday.
Armed marshals had a heavy presence in the courtroom. Almosaleh, a slight, balding man, listened as he was informed of his rights through an Arabic interpreter.
Almosaleh was arrested July 7 shortly after getting off a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam. Government sources told The Associated Press after Almosaleh's arrest that he was carrying a note that hinted at a public suicide.
A federal indictment alleges Almosaleh falsely said he had been out of the United States for one month when he actually had been out for about five months, and that he told agents the only country he had visited was Syria when he had actually been to Iraq.
The indictment also said video discs that Almosaleh claimed were just music actually had video of Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia, along with calls for resistance against the United States, and video images of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the invasion of Iraq.
Each of the three counts carries a maximum potential penalty of up to five years in prison.
(steely)
Just the kind of lying, America-hating SoS we want to keep out of our country. First to jail, then permanent deportation. Any attempt to re-enter US to result in 20-year sentence.
I wonder what the public defender got caught doing.
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