Sudanese pilot sentenced to six months in prion on immigration fraud .

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina, Mar 19, 2003 (AP) -- A former pilot from Sudan who had pleaded guilty to immigration-fraud charges was sentenced to six months in prison and ordered deported.

At a briefing sentencing hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty Jr. gave Mekki Hamed Mekki, who was arrested last September, credit for time served. He will be held by authorities until he is deported.

Mekki declined to say anything when Beaty asked if he would like to speak.

In December, Mekki, 30, who has lived in Greensboro since 2000 and last worked as a taxi driver, pleaded guilty to three counts of immigration fraud, including making false statements to obtain a tourist visa. Details of the plea bargain is sealed.

Mekki was indicted Oct. 4 on nine counts of violating immigration laws. It was unclear whether the six remaining charges were dropped under the plea bargain.

Though local prosecutors have said little about other allegations, two government officials in Washington told The Associated Press that federal authorities believed he was linked to terrorist groups.

Prosecutors and Mekki's lawyers declined to comment Tuesday.

Friends who attended the hearing said Mekki was looking forward to reuniting with his wife in Qatar and possibly moving back to Sudan to be with his family.

"We're very happy for him," said Omer Omer, a case manager for African Services Coalition in Greensboro, which helps Sudanese natives adjust to their new life in America.

The indictment alleged that Mekki made false statements in applying for and obtaining a tourist visa to visit the United States. It says he lied on an unsuccessful asylum application and made illegal multiple entries for himself, his brother and his wife in an immigration lottery.

It also charged that Mekki omitted his service in the Sudanese Air Force from a June 2001 asylum application, saying his only employment in the preceding five years was with an air transport company in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.>