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by Lawrence Kootnikoff
LOS ANGELES, July 10 (AFP) - They met in a shopping mall. They dated. They fell in love. The only problem was that he was a US Marine and she was a member of Bahrain's royal family. When her family learned of the relationship, they forbade Meriam Al-Khalifa to see him. So Lance Corporal Jason Johnson, 25, and Al-Khalifa, 18, decided to elope to the United States. Next week she will appear at an immigration hearing in San Diego in an effort to win political asylum and remain. Johnson sneaked her out of the island Gulf State by dressing her up as a Marine, complete with fake military documents and a New York Yankees cap to hide her long hair, the Los Angeles Times reported. Johnson was serving with a counter-terrorism unit providing security to US citizens in Bahrain, the Times reported. When the two began seeing each other, for several months she did not tell the Marine that her father was a sheik and cousin to Bahrain's head of state, Emir Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. Now she says she fears retribution if she returns. Contacted here by phone by AFP, Al-Khalifa refused to give an interview, saying she feared it could cause the couple more problems. But the two did speak to the Times. "I did the worst thing possible in my country, to fall in love with a non-Muslim," Al-Khalifa, now 19, told the paper. "To make it even worse, he's an American." "I think they'd kill her if she ever returned," Johnson told the Times. "She embarrassed the royal family. To keep their reputation clean, they would have to take vengeance." Al-Khalifa will have her first chance to explain her fear of persecution on Monday, when she appears before an immigration judge, said Sharon Gavin, spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in San Diego. "She must demonstrate a credible fear of being returned to home country," Gavin told AFP. "I can't tell you the particulars of the case, because it's protected." But Bahraini officials contacted by the Times said the young "sheika" had nothing to fear. "The family still loves her very much and would love her to go back," a Bahraini diplomat in Washington told the paper. "Nothing will happen to her. This is a family matter, not a royal matter." The unlikely couple now live in government housing at Camp Pendleton, the Marine base 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Los Angeles. They were married in Las Vegas in November, two weeks after arriving in the United States. Johnson has already paid a price for love - he was busted back to private for the caper, according to the Times. |
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