PORTLAND, ORE. – U.S. authorities are seeking to revoke the citizenship of an Oregon imam who they say fought with Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s and dealt with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, then lied about his past when he became a naturalized citizen, court documents showed.

The civil complaint filed in federal court in Portland, Oregon, on Monday against Mohamed Kariye follows his involvement as a plaintiff in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the imam and several others challenging their placement on the U.S. no-fly list.

Kariye, who is originally from Somalia, has been an imam at the Islamic Center of Portland, the largest mosque in Oregon.

He came to the United States on a student visa in 1982, and between 1985 and 1988 he traveled to Afghanistan where he fought with the mujahideen against the Soviet Union, according to the federal complaint.

The U.S. government covertly supported mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan in the war against Soviet forces during the 1980s.

The complaint said that during his time overseas, Kariye “dealt directly” with bin Laden and the late Sheik Abdullah Azzam, the founders of al Qaeda. The group carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

In Pakistan in the early 1990s, Kariye recruited sympathizers and raised funds for Maktab al-Khidamat, a precursor to al Qaeda, and around the same time he became a leading figure with the now defunct Global Relief Foundation, which the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization, the complaint said.

In 1997, Kariye sought to become a naturalized U.S. citizen after he was granted asylum in the country and married a U.S. citizen.

U.S. immigration officials granted him citizenship in 1998, but he had failed to disclose his ties to the mujahideen in Afghanistan, Maktab al-Khidamat and Global Relief Foundation during the process, the complaint said.

A representative from the mosque where Kariye has been an imam did not return an email.

U.S. officials have said his false testimony while seeking citizenship is an indication that Kariye lacked the “good moral character” necessary for naturalization.

The complaint did not indicate how U.S. authorities learned about Kariye’s alleged involvement with militants, or why immigration officials did not have that information when they granted him citizenship.