The 36-year-old Chasib Hafedh Saadoon al-Fawadi, an Iraqi who lives in New York, was sentenced to 48 months in prison after allegedly admitting to submitting false information to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services while applying for permanent residency in the country in 2017, stated the US Department of Justice.
Al-Fawadi had previously denied being a member of any groups engaged in violent activities, but was later revealed that he had been a member of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) militia group until he migrated to the US in 2016, according to the Department.
Asaib Ahl al-Haq is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi), an umbrella group of Shiite paramilitary forces that was formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) under a fatwa from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. A number of forces within the umbrella group are backed by Iran.
US State Department designated the AAH as a terrorist organization in January 2020 and its leaders Qais al-Khazali and Laith al-Khazali as terrorists.
The statement added that as a part of the militant group, al-Fawadi had travelled to Syria in 2013 to engage in combat operations that supported the Syrian regime. “Al Fawadi concealed his travel to Syria, Iran, and Jordan when he applied for refugee classification and again in his application for permanent resident status,” read the statement.
The former member of the AAH claimed during his immigration application that he was being persecuted by the AAH for refusing to help the militant group in kidnapping Sunni citizens of Iraq.
Investigation into al-Fawadi’s case by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations began in September 2020. He will be removed from the US upon his release from the federal prison without any further immigrations proceedings, according to his sentence.
