DETROIT — On Tuesday, June 9, Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh’s lead defense attorney, Michael Deutsch, filed a brief with the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to appeal her conviction and sentencing.

The appeal urges the court to reverse the conviction, arguing that Odeh was denied her right to present her complete defense and that the trial court was wrong to allow prejudicial documents from Israel’s military court. 

The prosecution claimed Odeh had unlawfully gained U.S. citizenship by giving false answers on her visa application in 1995 and again on her naturalization application in 2004. The government claimed that she failed to disclose that she had been convicted by the Israelis of participating in bombings in 1969. This conviction in a military court was the result of a false confession made after she was tortured and raped by Israeli military authorities for weeks. 

As a result of that torture, Odeh has been diagnosed with chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which “blocked her from understanding the time frame in the questions that were answered falsely.”