Postville, IA – A former Agriprocessors manager who fled to Israel after being charged for harboring illegal workers was set to be extradited back to Iowa nearly a year ago but he never came back, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan said Wednesday Hosam Amara, 47, is fighting extradition and has made an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court. His return is unknown until the court makes its ruling, he said.
Authorities located Amara and arrested him March 31, 2011 on the request for extradition issued in 2009 in connection with federal charges pending in Cedar Rapids, according to court records.
Amara was first indicted Nov. 20, 2008 on charges stemming from the May 2008 immigration raid at the Postville meatpacking plant. Amara is charged with one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented workers for profit, 24 counts of harboring and aiding abetting the harboring of undocumented worker for profit, one count of conspiracy to commit document fraud, and one count of aiding and abetting document fraud.
Amara and Zeev Levi, another Agriprocessors manager who also fled to Israel after being charged, are the last two cases to be resolved in connection with the immigration raid where 389 illegal workers were charged. Levi remains a fugitive.
According to the indictment, Amara and Levi allegedly had knowledge of illegal workers and their fake documents for employment, and helped them obtained the documents.
If convicted of all charges, Amara faces up to 260 years in prison and a $6.7 million fine.
A jury in November 2009 convicted former vice president Sholom Rubashkin, 52, of 86 counts of bank, mail and wire fraud, money laundering and failure to pay livestock providers in a timely manner.
There were several supervisors, managers and employees charged and convicted in this case.
Trish Mehaffey • SourceMedia Group News
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