SEATTLE, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. efforts to deport a man at the center of a terrorism case have hit a snag as no other country will take him, authorities said.
Semi Osmand was a central figure in an abortive 1999 attempt to establish a terrorist-training camp on a remote ranch in south-central Oregon, the Seattle Times reported.
Osman, 40, was arrested in 2002 in connection with an FBI's investigation of Islamic radicals who took over a Seattle mosque where Osman was the imam, or prayer leader, the newspaper said.
He pleaded guilty to a gun charge in that matter and was also convicted of molesting a 10-year-old relative, spending almost four years in state prison for that charge.
Osman has since been released and the U.S. government wants to deport him -- but can't find anyone willing to take him, officials said.
His native Sierra Leone says he's not a citizen there because his parents were Lebanese. Lebanon says it doesn't want him even though he was issued a passport there as a child.
Great Britain, which gave Osman an "overseas territory" passport before he came to the United States in 1988, now says it doesn't want him either.
Osman must wear a GPS tracking bracelet, but he has petitioned a judge for the right to remove it while the deportation case is ongoing.
Federal officials say they oppose that petition given his history "and the risk that he will flee and disappear into the United States population."
