The leader of Ohio's largest mosque entered a low-security prison Monday where he is expected to serve two months for lying about connections to terrorist groups.
Imam Fawaz Damra, 43, must serve four months of house arrest after completing his prison term. He turned himself in Monday morning at the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton, in northeast Ohio about 20 miles south of Youngstown.
Damra was convicted in June of concealing ties to three groups - Afghan Refugee Services, the Islamic Committee for Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.
The U.S. government classifies those groups as terrorist organizations. Damra also faces possible deportation.
Damra, of Strongsville in suburban Cleveland, was the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Ohio's largest Islamic congregation.