Posted on 11/02/2001 1:52:12 PM PST by summer
Middle Easterners accused of fake marriages
The Associated Press
Posted November 2, 2001, 2:43 PM EST
TAMPA -- Four Middle Eastern immigrants face federal charges of entering into sham marriages in attempts to gain citizenship.
The four defendants, including a pregnant woman, pleaded not guilty to the charges during a brief hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court. They have been in jail for three weeks by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The three U.S. citizens involved have not been charged.
The indictments, issued Wednesday, come as the federal government cracks down on immigration violations in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"The attorney general has made it clear that U.S. attorneys across the country are to strictly enforce immigration laws," said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Tampa. "This is part of that effort to strictly enforce these laws."
Cole said the laws apply to everyone, and that people of Middle Eastern descent have not been singled out. Authorities did not discuss how they concluded the marriages were a sham or how much money changed hands, if any.
He declined to say if authorities suspected the four of having a terrorist connection.
Those charged with entering into sham marriages are Nermine Khammash, 25, and twin brothers Nasri Al Hamdan and Montaser Hamdan Al Hamdan, 32.
Each faces one count of knowingly entering into a marriage with a U.S citizen for the purpose of evading immigration laws. If convicted, they could face five years in prison and a $250,000 fine
Mohammad Basheer Alqaryuti, 42, was charged with entering into a sham marriage and lying about it on a visa application. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
They all married in Tampa. Three had religious ceremonies; one was a civil ceremony.
Nasri Al Hamdan, in a phone interview from jail with The Tampa Tribune before the hearing, said he loved his wife. He said he was stunned when federal agents told him his wife had disavowed their marriage.
His wife, Shawanda Al Hamdan, 23, of Tampa, said in an interview that she agreed to marry him for $150 a month while he applied for citizenship.
She was 18 and unemployed at the time. They were wed in a courthouse ceremony May 15, 1997, and never lived together or dated, she said.
Nasri Al Hamdan said his brother Montaser Hamdan Al Hamdan had been dating Nermine Khammash, who also was detained. After being taken into custody, she realized she was pregnant with Montaser Hamdan Al Hamdan's baby.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
Saudi student under new scrutiny over his marriage.
Here's the story in full, pardon the length, but I thought you might be interested:
Oct. 18 Sand DIego Union-Tribune
Authorities are investigating the legitimacy of the marriage of material witness Yazeed Al-Salmi to a La Mesa woman the day after the terrorist attacks, FBI sources said.
A marriage certificate indicates Al-Salmi, 23, a Grossmont College student from Saudi Arabia, wed Jacquelyn Lee Fisher, 27, a caregiver born in California, in a civil ceremony Sept. 12 in El Cajon. Whether Al-Salmi's marriage -- which took place 11 days before he was arrested by the FBI and transferred to a New York jail -- is relevant to the terror investigation is unclear. Al-Salmi was held for 17 days and released Oct. 9 after testifying twice before a federal grand jury. He was not charged with a crime.
He has acknowledged living briefly at the same boardinghouse as San Diego-linked hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi, but said he was unaware of Alhazmi's plan to crash a jet into the Pentagon.
Al-Salmi entered the United States on a two-year student visa that expires in July 2002. Marrying a U.S. citizen would allow him to apply for permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship. The marriage certificate says the couple live together at an apartment building on Lemon Circle in La Mesa. The FBI recently visited the complex, asking questions of Fisher and her neighbors.
Fisher, contacted yesterday at the apartment, said the marriage is not a sham. "He's my husband. I don't have nothing to say," Fisher said. "I'm moving and we're getting a place. I married him because I love him, and I'm not divorcing him because everyone thinks he's a terrorist." Fisher referred further questions to Al-Salmi, but would not say where he is. Al-Salmi could not be reached for comment.
A manager and neighbors at the apartment complex said Fisher has not mentioned her marriage and that they have never seen or heard of Al-Salmi, who listed the complex as his address on the marriage license.
During an interview in New York after his release last week, Al-Salmi said he lived with male roommates at an apartment on Saranac Street in La Mesa until his arrest. He also said he had been evicted because of his arrest and had nowhere to live in San Diego. Al-Salmi's attorney, Randall Hamud, said yesterday he was unaware that his client was married, but added that his marital status has nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. "It's not relevant to anything," Hamud said. "A lot of people might have got married on Sept. 12; a lot might have been Arabs. It doesn't mean a thing."
"During his interviews there have never been any questions about marriage. It never came up. The issue was any interactions he might have had with Nawaf (Alhazmi) and those people, not his private life." Hamud is in New York trying to secure the release of two other material witnesses, including one who was a roommate of Al-Salmi's on Saranac Street.
Fisher's apartment manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Fisher lived at the apartment for about six months with a boyfriend named James, but that the two were splitting up and moving out at the end of the month. They argued frequently and loudly in the one-bedroom, $725-a-month apartment, the manager said.
"That's beyond strange," the manager said of the marriage. "I just saw her Friday and she didn't mention getting married." "She doesn't make an awful lot of money. If he offered her money I could see her doing it out of desperation." The manager said Fisher indicated she is moving to another apartment with a female friend, and the manager provided Fisher with a reference.
When asked why Al-Salmi would say he had no place to live upon his return to San Diego, Fisher said her husband "didn't know I got a place." And when asked about the female roommate, Fisher said, "She's coming with us." The manager compared Fisher's signature on rental documents to the signature on the marriage certificate. They matched, as did the birth dates. Deputy Marriage Commissioner Cicely Suarez, whose name appears on the marriage certificate, said she performs so many ceremonies that she does not remember that of Al-Salmi and Fisher. But theirs was likely the standard five-minute exchange of vows in the "ceremony room" of a county building at 200 S. Magnolia Ave. in El Cajon. Couples need not make plans in advance; they are only required to show up during business hours with a valid, government-issued photo identification card, $100 and a divorce decree, if applicable. The ID doesn't have to be American.
If they don't bring their own witness, one is provided. In Al-Salmi's case, the witness was someone listing the address of a Texaco gas station on Spring Street near University Avenue. The signature on the marriage certificate was illegible. One of the San Diego-linked hijackers and several material witnesses once worked at the gas station. During the interview with the Union-Tribune in New York, Al-Salmi said he hopes to remain in the United States. He said he wants to continue his studies at Grossmont and may eventually seek U.S. citizenship. He has applied for the spring semester at San Diego State University, according to a spokesman. Whether he has applied for permanent residency could not be immediately determined........etc.
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Poor dumb girl. Now, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune on October 21, she was brought before the grand jury.
"S.D. grand jury holds secret proceedings tied to Sept. 11 probe"
A federal grand jury in San Diego is hearing testimony related to the massive terror probe, a new local twist in the 41-day-old investigation that has been rooted in New York City. FBI sources confirmed that the secret proceedings are under way and that among those summoned to appear was Jacquelyn Lee Fisher, 27. Fisher married a man -- arrested as a material witness in the probe -- the day after the terrorist attacks. Sources said Fisher testified Friday. Those familiar with the local investigation said they could not discuss the San Diego grand jury's purpose, the nature of the questions or whether others have testified.
However, the marriage of Fisher to Grossmont College student Yazeed Al-Salmi is a likely topic because FBI sources said earlier that investigators were scrutinizing the marriage as a possible attempt by Al-Salmi to gain permanent residency in the United States.
Al-Salmi is a 23-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia who briefly lived in the same boarding house as one of the San Diego-based hijackers. He came to this country on a two-year student visa that expires in July 2002.
......
Fisher, who also could not be reached yesterday, said in an interview last week that she married Al-Salmi "because I love him, and I'm not divorcing him because everyone thinks he's a terrorist." Neighbors and the manager of the La Mesa apartment where she lived, however, said they had never seen Al-Salmi and that Fisher was living with a boyfriend....
I did a google search on the mysterious woman who died from anthrax inhalation, Kathy T. Nguyen. The authorities are having a difficult time finding any relatives. The only match on google was an elementary student with the same name from Lake Wales, Fla. The central Fla. connection is curious, though. Sometimes I don't want to know about all of my neighbors.
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