Supporters of Arab American Action Network (AAAN) associate director Rasmieh Odeh blamed political bias yesterday after a judge refused to dismiss charges that she misled the US immigration service.

Ms Odeh was accused of failing to tell officials of her conviction for a fatal bombing in Jerusalem in 1969.

She had been a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and was found guilty of bombing a supermarket, killing two people, as well as for trying to bomb the British consulate.

Israel freed her after 10 years in a prisoner exchange with the PFLP.

Her lawyers sought to have the case thrown out on Thursday, saying that it had grown out of “an illegal investigation of the First Amendment activities” of the AAAN and amounted to selective prosecution.

Prosecution attorney Barbara McQuade said that Ms Odeh’s lawyers had failed to meet the “high burden” of proof for a selective prosecution charge.

She was backed by District Judge Gershwin, who scheduled her trial to begin on November 4 in Detroit.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington had asked Attorney General Eric Holder to halt the prosecution, warning that it “plays into the belief and perception that the … government is intentionally targeting and prosecuting Arab American activists.”

Lawyer Samer E Khalaf said that Ms Odeh was an “exemplary citizen and well-respected leader in the Chicago Arab-American community.”

Her military court conviction was based on a confession that “was illegally obtained by torture and sexual abuse while she was detained in Israel and denied due process,” he added.