ALBANY -- An Iraqi refugee was sentenced to 22 years to life in prison Friday morning for raping a woman last year. He is the third refugee to be convicted of a sex crime in Albany County since 2010.
A jury found Al Haideri guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman he met at an Albany bar. He was captured on surveillance video dragging her out of his car near a Central Avenue pizzeria. She later walked into a nearby gas station bleading and badly bruised. Al Haideri claimed the sex was consensual.
"I'm innocent. I didn't do any assault," al Haideri told the court during sentencing.
Al Haideri came to the United States as a refugee. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said it worked with the U.S. State Department to provide reception and placement services.
Locally, Catholic Charities said it initially helped him find housing in Niskayuna and get familiarized with the area. A spokesman said they have helped dozens of refugees, but ended the program in 2012 because it wasn't receiving any refugees.
Two other refugees who came through the program have also been convicted of sex crimes.
Walid Nehma of Iraq was convicted of trying to rape a woman in an alley off Pearl Street. Salah Mhawesh of Egypt was also convicted of sex abuse.
Judge Roger McDonough sentenced al Haideri to the maximum of 22 years to life in prison.
"You came to this country, I would imagine, to escape that horror and violence of your home country," McDonough told al Haideri during sentencing. "Yet you perpetrated it on the citizens of the country that offered you freedom from that horror."
"You came to this country, I would imagine, to escape that horror and violence of your home country, yet you perpetrated it upon the citizens of the very country that offered freedom from and succer from that violence and horror."
