DETROIT — Defense attorneys for Rasmea Odeh, Chicago’s 67-year-old Palestinian community leader, filed a “sentencing memorandum” in a Detroit federal court, arguing that Odeh “should not be sentenced to further imprisonment” following her conviction in November on a single charge of Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization.  

The memorandum included “over 70 letters from religious leaders, university professors, human rights attorneys, community activists and people who have worked with her, attesting to her extraordinary and original work with Arab immigrant women.”

In support of Odeh, Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of Detroit wrote, “I am asking for compassion in her sentencing. Rasmea has much to offer her community…keeping her out of prison would allow her to continue as a contributing and productive person, doing the work that is so critical to hundreds of refugee women.”

Odeh’s attorneys are asking Judge Gershwin Drain to take her age, poor health, chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and “exemplary history in the United States” into consideration when deciding on her sentence, adding that “there is no reasonable justification for sending Ms. Odeh to federal prison.”

The prosecution is seeking a harsh sentence for Odeh. In their filing on Wednesday, Feb. 25, prosecutors Jonathan Tukel and Mark Jebson compared Odeh to “Islamic State” militants.

“A light sentence in this case would be a signal to anyone who has fought overseas for ISIS or a similar organization that there is not much risk in coming to the United States, hiding one’s past, and seeking citizenship,” the prosecutors wrote.

The Rasmea Defense Committee described the comparison as ridiculous.