SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio man has been sentenced to five years in prison and stripped of his U.S. citizenship for lying about his prior affiliation with Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group.
The San Antonio Express-News reports Wissam Allouche was sentenced Monday in San Antonio. His lawyers plan to appeal. Prosecutors say that in the 1980s, Allouche was the commander of the now-defunct Amal militia in his native Lebanon, and had sway over fighters with Hezbollah, considered a terrorist group by the U.S.
He was convicted in February of withholding his prior membership in the Amal militia while seeking U.S. security clearance as a linguist. Jurors also found him guilty of falsely claiming he lived with his U.S. Army officer wife to get U.S. citizenship. They were divorcing at the time.
