Iranian man faces prison
for lying about citizenship

He could be deported after
he serves an 8-month sentence
for his false representation

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By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

A 44-year-old Iranian man who was arrested shortly after Sept. 11 at his Honolulu apartment was sentenced yesterday to eight months in prison and faces deportation for telling the FBI he was a U.S. citizen.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Sorenson said FBI agents were sent to Manoorcherh Kavepisheh's home in September, following up on leads received in the wake of the terrorist attacks. He said the FBI received about 900 such leads in Hawaii.

Kavepisheh, who has lived in the United States for 27 years, told the agents he was a U.S. citizen, presenting a false passport, but immigration agents determined he was not. He has been incarcerated for nearly six months.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra also denounced Kavepisheh for selling false passports "at a time when the United States is fighting terrorism."

"One of our concerns is terrorists getting into the country using false and fraudulent identification," he said. "This is not something the court can overlook."

Kavepisheh will serve the remainder of his eight-month sentence at the Honolulu federal detention center, after which he will be detained by the Immigration Service before determining whether he will be deported.

In a plea agreement with the government, Kavepisheh pleaded guilty Feb. 4 to falsely representing himself as a citizen, and charges concerning selling false passports over the Internet were dropped.

Assistant federal public defender William Domingo said Kavepisheh's real punishment will be deportation to Muslim Iran because he is a converted Christian and fears persecution.

"I was desperately under pressure knowing that I am an apostate from the Muslim faith," Kavepisheh told the judge.

"Why didn't you legally apply to the INS?" Ezra asked Kavepisheh. "It mystifies me. ... Why did you have to live this underground life?"

Kavepisheh said two of his brothers still live "underground" in Iran and that he had been afraid to go to the Immigration Service to ask for asylum because the Iranian government would find out and hunt him down.

"They have death squads," he said.

Domingo explained his client came to the United States in 1974 as a student and was six credits away from an engineering degree when Iran was taken over by the Ayatollah Khomeini, his family was persecuted and he lost funding to continue school.

The judge said he "might have a compelling case, were it not for his conduct, which threatens the security of this country." He also noted that he has operated under a number of aliases.

"Mr. Kavepisheh has a long, troubling, secret life," Sorenson said.

Kavepisheh's parents and other family members now live in Chicago. He is also married; his wife and 18-year-old son live on the mainland.