Rasmea Odeh released, headed back to Chicago

Rasmea Odeh, Palestinian-American icon, hugs one of her supporters following the jury selection. Her trial will continue at the Theodore Levin Court House on Nov. 5.

UPDATE: Rasmea Odeh was released from prison earlier today and is on her way back to Chicago.

Odeh was in a Port Huron, Michigan, jail for 5 weeks, the last two in solitary confinement, after she was convicted of one count of unlawful procurement of naturalization. Yesterday the government’s attempt to delay her return to her friends and family failed.

The government delivered a motion to Judge Drain A. Gershwin to “determine the source of the cash to be offered as collateral to secure [the $50,000] bond.” Following a hearing where prosecutors questioned members of Rasmea’s Defense Committee, the government withdrew its complaint.

“Tukel and Jebson forced Rasmea to stay in jail for over a month, including the past two weeks in solitary confinement,” Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the Rasmea Defense Committee, said in a statement. “Their actions are nothing but punitive in nature, and their questioning of the donor clearly affirms that their politics and ideology, not the law, govern their work.”

The Palestinian-American icon was supposed to be released from prison on a cash bond earlier in the week, Palestine in America reported on Dec. 8. Odeh’s defense committee raised the funds in a few days but had to overcome another hurdle to bring Odeh home to Chicago today.

“We’re extremely happy and looking forward to seeing Rasmea [Odeh] back in Chicago soon. Her defense team is incredible, but this victory belongs to her thousands of supporters as well,” Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the national Rasmea Defense Committee said to Palestine in America on Dec. 8th. “We still have a lot of work to do on the appeal, and we’ll continue to organize until we win that as well!”

Odeh will be publicly welcomed back at the Wishah Popular Dance Troupe performancehosted by the Arab American Action Network. In the meantime she will get back to her work the the Arab Women’s Committee and the AAAN.

Odeh will be free until her sentencing hearing on March 10, but she and her lawyers will work on the appeal in the meantime.