San Diego Couple To Be Deported

Majeda Dweikat and Osama Yousef Basnan admitted during separate hearings held Monday that they used false immigration documents to stay in the U.S., The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Dweikat was sentenced to 60 days in jail and Basnan to 53 days, approximately the length of time already served, the newspaper reported.

The couple was not charged with terrorism.

According to their attorney, the couple will be returned to Basnan's native Saudi Arabia, where a relative is caring for their six children, who are U.S. citizens, the newspaper reported.

"I just made a mistake," Basnan told U.S. District Judge Irma Gonzalez. "I love this country."

During Dweikat's hearing before U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan, she showed pictures of her children, the newspaper reported.

The couple's attorney, Jeremy Warren, said that his clients are not terrorists but typical immigrants seeking a better life, the newspaper reported.

"It's sad. Like many immigrants, they wanted to stay here. They didn't have a legal right to and they did whatever they could to remain in the U.S.," Warren said in remarks reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The FBI investigated Dweikat and Basnan because they had a relationship with Omar al-Bayoumi, an alleged advance man for the San Diego-linked terrorists implicated in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the newspaper reported.

Dweikat was arrested with al-Bayoumi's wife, Manal Ahmed Bagader, for shoplifting at the J.C. Penney store in Fashion Valley in April 2001, according to court records.

They pleaded guilty and paid fines, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Al-Bayoumi and his wife left San Diego a few months after the shoplifting incident and two months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to the newspaper.

British authorities arrested al-Bayoumi after the terrorist attacks but released him a week later for lack of evidence, the newspaper reported.

His current whereabouts are not known.