update:
OLF financier sentenced to a year in U.S. prison
Fri May 04, 2007 5:16 pm
Man arrested for cash at Detroit airport gets year in prison
DETROIT — An Ethiopian-born U.S. citizen held on national security concerns and convicted of currency smuggling was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison and ordered to forfeit about $60,000.
Sisaye Dinssa, 35, pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court to making false statements and bulk cash smuggling.
The Dallas resident has been jailed since his arrest in November at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, where dogs caught the scent of narcotics on about $80,000 in cash he was carrying from a flight from Nairobi, Kenya, via Amsterdam.
Dinssa told authorities he had $18,000 to declare and later acknowledged lying, they say.
In its original complaint, the U.S. attorney’s office listed items found on Dinssa that included articles on nuclear power, using cyanide to commit suicide and the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Investigators also found a handwritten note that said: “We’re going to seek justice. This is a powder keg waiting to go off.”
Terrorism charges never were filed. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Leonid Feller told U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani on Thursday that Dinssa acknowledged meeting with and financially aiding the Oromo Liberation Front, which is fighting the Ethiopian government.
“There is substantial evidence _ both direct and circumstantial _ to implicate the defendant in matters of national security,” Feller wrote in a sentencing memorandum obtained by The Detroit News.
Defense attorney Michael Linardos said the government made many unsubstantiated and irrelevant allegations against Dinssa.
“I’ve never hurt anybody, your honor,” Dinssa said.
http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6468346
Thanks piasa and I’ll add a couple of blog links here for this update.
#
http://nazret.com/blog/media/dinssa.jpg
blog:
http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?title=sisaye_dinssa_gets_a_year_in_prison&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Ethiopia - Sisaye Dinssa gets a year in prison
05/03/07
11:24:08 pm, by nazret.com, 280 words, 2147 views
Categories: Ethiopia, Crime
“Ethiopia - Sisaye Dinssa gets a year in prison”
“Ethiopia - Man arrested for cash at Detroit airport gets year in prison”
BLOG ENTRY SNIPPET: “DETROIT — An Ethiopian-born U.S. citizen held on national security concerns and convicted of currency smuggling was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison and ordered to forfeit about $60,000.
Sisaye Dinssa, 35, pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court to making false statements and bulk cash smuggling.
The Dallas resident has been jailed since his arrest in November at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, where dogs caught the scent of narcotics on about $80,000 in cash he was carrying from a flight from Nairobi, Kenya, via Amsterdam.
Dinssa told authorities he had $18,000 to declare and later acknowledged lying, they say.”
ON THE INTERNET:
www.oromoliberationfront.org/
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=%22Oromo+Liberation+Front%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn
