Jury acquits man of spying for Iraq

A 67-year-old Canoga Park man was acquitted Friday of spying for the now-defunct regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but he could still be deported.

William Shaoul Benjamin, an Iraq-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was accused of being a covert agent for Hussein’s Iraqi Intelligence Service and charged with conspiracy and failure to register as a foreign agent. The U.S. alleged that his mission was to infiltrate and report on Assyrian Christian expatriates in the L.A. area who were opposed to Hussein’s government.

Although jurors found Benjamin not guilty of spying after one day of deliberating, they convicted him of making a false statement on his naturalization form and procuring naturalization unlawfully.

Benjamin is scheduled to be sentenced April 14.