CEDAR RAPIDS —- A former supervisor at the defunct Agriprocessors plant in Postville will remain in custody for now after he was extradited to the United States on immigration and document fraud charges.
Hosam Amara, 48, a line manager at the kosher meatpacking plant, was returned to the country on Thursday following a March ruling by the Israel Supreme Court that turned down his extradition challenge, said U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan.
Dressed in an orange jail uniform with his ankles shackled and his hands cuffed to a chain around his waist, Amara appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids on Friday for an initial appearance and arraignment.
His attorney, Steven Drahozal of Dubuque, said Amara pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit, 24 counts of harboring and aiding the harboring of undocumented aliens for profit, one count of conspiracy to commit document fraud and one count of aiding document fraud.
Amara waived an immediate detention hearing, although he can raise the issue at a later date.
Deegan asked the court to allow federal probation officials to take possession of two passports that accompanied Amara into the United States. Deegan said he was concerned the government could lose control of the documents if they were filed with Amara’s personal property.
The defense didn’t object to the request.
Deegan said Amara has been a fugitive since he was indicted in November 2008. He was detained in Israel in March 2011 and fought extradition until the Israeli Supreme Court turned down his case in March 2013. The U.S. Marshal Service took him into custody in Israel Thursday.
Magistrate Jon Scoles set a July 1, 2013, trial with a June 5 status hearing. He also granted Amara’s application for court-appointed counsel, allowing Drahozal to represent him at public expense.
Zeev Levi, another Agriprocessors poultry manager indicted with Amara, remains at large.
Court records allege Levi and Amara told a poultry supervisor that several of his workers were to be let go because they were hired with bogus employment documents in the days leading up to the 2008 raid. They said six workers could continue to work if they got better fake documents.
Amara was also involved in a scheme to buy vehicles from a Cedar Rapids dealership and sell them to undocumented workers, court records state.
If convicted, Amara faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit charge and the harboring undocumented aliens for profit charges, up to five years on the conspiracy to commit document fraud charge, and up to 10 years on the document fraud charge.
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