Fayetteville : Ex-UA student gets 15 months in prison
Posted on Friday, November 17, 2006
FAYETTEVILLE — A former University of Arkansas graduate student was sentenced to 15 months in prison Thursday for lying to obtain naturalization status and using someone else’s Social Security number to get credit.
U. S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren revoked the citizenship of Arwah Jaber, 35, of Fayetteville, who was acquitted in June on a charge of aiding a terrorist group.
Defense attorneys told Hendren they are seeking a reinstatement of citizenship in an appeal of Jaber’s sentence.
Should Jaber fail to regain citizenship, defense attorney John Wesley Hall Jr. plans to argue that Jaber should be considered a permanent resident of the United States because he is married to a U. S. citizen.
Permanent residents are allowed to live in the country, but they don’t have all the rights of a citizen, including voting rights.
Jaber is a naturalized citizen born in the West Bank town of Yamoun.
He will report to the U. S. Bureau of Prisons in three or four weeks.
He was arrested in June 2005 after telling people at UA he was leaving Fayetteville to join the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group the U. S. State Department has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Jaber told the FBI he was angry about not being able to obtain his doctorate at UA, so he talked about leaving the United States to fight a “holy war.”
Jaber obtained his doctoral degree in chemistry at UA this year while awaiting trial.
A jury in June acquitted Jaber on a charge of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization.
But jurors convicted him of five lesser charges involving lying during the naturalization process and lying on credit card applications.
Specifically, Jaber didn’t disclose he used both Arwah Jaber and his Palestinian name, Orwah Hoshia, on immigration documents.
He used a Social Security number that belonged to a Kansas boy to obtain credit cards.
“Illegal immigration and identity fraud are serious crimes,” Assistant U. S. Attorney Wendy Johnson said at Thursday’s sentencing hearing. “That’s what we have here today. These crimes aren’t to be taken lightly.”
The Kansas boy whose Social Security number Jaber used is now 16 and worries his credit is harmed, Johnson said. Hendren told Jaber he should try to ensure the boy’s credit is in good standing.
Jaber moved to the U. S. in 1990 to attend Pittsburg State University in Kansas. He became a naturalized citizen in 2001 while he was a graduate student at UA.
Jaber was arrested June 14, 2005, at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill.
He said he and his wife, Dawn, were traveling to the Middle East to attend his sister’s wedding.
The FBI said he was leaving to join the jihad.
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