Court Vacates Conviction of Palestinian-American Community Leader Rasmea Odeh
Feb 27, 2016 | Case & Campaign Updates | 0 comments
From the Center for Constitutional Rights:
"A U.S. court of appeals today has vacated the immigration fraud conviction of Palestinian-American activist Rasmea Odeh. Odeh was convicted in 2014 for failing to disclose a 1969 arrest and conviction in an Israeli military court on her U.S. immigration and naturalization documents. Odeh had been subjected to torture, including rape, by Israeli interrogators, and forced to sign a false confession. The Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement in response to today's ruling:
Rasmea Odeh was convicted in a heavily politicized trial as a result of her activism. We are relieved that the appeals court has recognized that evidence of her torture and PTSD should not have been categorically excluded during her trial. The court's decision presents a great victory to anti-torture advocates and survivors of torture. It affirms that severe human rights violations should be taken seriously when deciding domestic cases impacted by the effects of those violations and that the experience of torture can have recurring psychological effects on the memory of survivors. We hope this legal nightmare will soon be over for Rasmea, who has been forced to relive unthinkable trauma throughout this process."