A former inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution-McKean has been sentenced for escaping from custody there in the 1990s.
Ghassan Saleh, 66, will serve one year and one day in prison for his conviction of escape from federal custody, U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady announced Friday.
According to an affidavit filed after his alleged escape, at 4:30 p.m. June 30, 1997, Saleh, who was then 45, failed to show up for roll call at the Lafayette Township prison. He had been serving a 70-month sentence for a conviction of possession with the intent to distribute cocaine in Michigan.
Saleh was on the lam for 20 years before he was arrested in 2017 at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
Brady reported that the information presented to the court indicated that Saleh fled the United States to live as a fugitive in Lebanon.
Era reports from the time of the escape indicated that officers completed a thorough search of the prison camp to confirm Saleh was missing. They believed at that time that he walked away from the facility, then hitched a ride early that evening with a pickup truck driver who was headed in the direction of Interstate 80.
On Nov. 17, 2017, U.S. Marshals learned that Saleh had booked a flight to travel to the United States from abroad. He scheduled to arrive Nov. 18, 2017 at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, N.Y. — where marshals detained him.
A U.S. Marshals wanted poster for Saleh indicated he was born in the country of Lebanon. Court records indicate he is also a U.S. citizen.
An article that appeared in The Era on July 2, 1997, indicated Saleh arrived at FCI-McKean March 10, 1997, and had a projected release date of June 28, 2001.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall J. Piccinini headed the prosecution. The investigation was conducted by officers of FCI-McKean and the U.S. Marshal’s service.
