STAFF REPORTS
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced today that Isaac T. Kannah, 51, of Philadelphia, PA, who was convicted of misprision of a felony, was sentenced to time served and one year unsupervised release by U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer. In addition, the defendant has agreed to revocation of his asylee status and will voluntarily depart the United States following formal immigration proceedings.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett A. Harvey, who handled the case, stated that, in May 2011, an Immigration Judge of the Executive Office of Immigration Review was conducting removal proceedings against George Boley, the former head of the Liberian Peace Council during the Liberian Civil War in the 1990s. One of the issues material to the removal proceedings was whether the Liberian Peace Council was a warring or fighting faction during the war. During the removal proceedings, Boley offered false and inaccurate testimony on this issue, asserting that the Liberian Peace Council was not a warring or fighting faction, in an effort to corruptly influence, obstruct and impede those proceedings, a felony in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1505.
In May 2011, the defendant knew that Boley was offering false and inaccurate testimony in order to obstruct the removal proceedings. Despite this knowledge, the defendant failed to notify the relevant federal authorities (such as the Immigration Judge or federal law enforcement authorities) about the crime. In addition, Kannah also sought affirmatively to conceal the crime by failing to state that the Liberian Peace Council was in fact a warring faction during the Liberian Civil War despite being questioned on that issue during his testimony at Boley’s removal proceedings.
Today’s sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Buffalo Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Kevin Kelly and the Philadelphia Office of ICE-HSI.
The United States Attorney’s Office was assisted in this investigation and prosecution by Brenda Sue Thornton, a Department of Justice Trial Attorney with the Counterterrorism Section, National Security Division.
