The leader of Ohio's biggest mosque, who was convicted of hiding ties to terrorist groups, has reached a deal with the U.S. government that will allow him to settle in one of four countries or the Palestinian territories, his attorney and the government said Thursday. Lawyers for Imam Fawaz Damra, who was to face deportation hearings in U.S. immigration court, reached an agreement with the government that will see Damra end up in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Egypt or the Palestinian territories, said Greg Gagne, a spokesman for the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review. A judge has approved the agreement between Damra's lawyers and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will make the final determination on where Damra ends up.Damra, who is the imam, or spiritual leader, at the Islamic Center of Cleveland, immigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s. Robert Birach, a Detroit lawyer who negotiated for Damra, said his client is still in federal custody and does not want details of his private life made public. "They reached an agreement. He'll be leaving the country. That's all I can say," Birach said.
Damra, 44, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing ties to alleged terrorist groups when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994. Damra's conviction for naturalization fraud wasn't enough to warrant deportation because he has legally lived in the United States for five years. Immigration officials have been seeking to remove him on charges that he raised funds for terrorist organizations. In Damra's 2004 trial, prosecutors showed video footage of him and other Islamic leaders raising money for an arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which since 1989 has been listed by the State Department as a terrorist group. Jurors were also shown footage in which Damra called Jews "the sons of monkeys and pigs" during a 1991 speech and said "terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation" in a 1989 speech.