May 10--A north suburban immigration lawyer known for advocating on behalf of Iraqi Christians was convicted by a federal jury Monday of falsifying paperwork in a bid to help clients win asylum in the United States on bogus claims of torture and religious persecution.
After a three-week trial at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, the jury deliberated about eight hours beginning Friday before finding Robert DeKelaita guilty of four counts of immigration fraud and suborning perjury. He was acquitted on a fifth fraud count.
DeKelaita's trial was attended every day by dozens of family members and friends who filled U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly's courtroom, prompting court officials to set up an overflow room on another floor that piped in audio from the trial.
As court adjourned Monday, a grim-faced DeKelaita wrapped an arm around his wife and walked into the hallway to talk to supporters, some sobbing at the news.
DeKelaita, 53, was charged in September 2014 with accepting fees to submit false information on behalf of clients who were foreign nationals and coaching them on how to lie during interviews with the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency.
Seeking to win asylum for clients, DeKelaita used false applicant names, religions, dates of entry into the U.S., birthdays and family histories and wrote up phony accounts of rape, murder and other religious persecution at the hands of reputed Islamic extremists in Iraq, prosecutors said.
In one case, DeKelaita helped a client identified in court records as "S.H." fill out an application for asylum in 2002. In the application, S.H. falsely stated he was arrested by Iraqi security forces in May 2000, held at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, and beaten and tortured for months, prosecutors alleged.
"None of this is true," prosecutors said in a court filing last year. "In fact, S.H. was in Germany when these events purportedly occurred."
Two interpreters who worked with DeKelaita -- Adam Benjamin and Yousif Yousif -- were also charged in the case. They were accused of intentionally mistranslating answers given by clients and adding testimony they had not given in an effort to secure asylum on their behalf.
Benjamin, 63, pleaded guilty in April 2015 to one count of fraud and was sentenced to six months in prison, records show. Yousif is awaiting trial.
DeKelaita, himself a Christian born in Iraq, has won asylum for hundreds of Iraqi Christians facing potential deportation, according to a 2008 Los Angeles Times story. He's been a prominent local advocate for Christians in Iraq, speaking publicly and writing articles posted online about their persecution.
An attorney since 1997, DeKelaita was reprimanded following a 2005 complaint that he abandoned an appeal filed with the federal appeals court in Chicago involving an asylum case, Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission records show.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
