Jericho, West Bank (AHN)-The Palestinian man who befriended a 16-year-old Michigan girl through the popular MySpace.com Web site and invited her to join him in Jericho says he is heartbroken by U.S. authorities' decision to send her back home.

Abdullah Jimzawi, 20, who is an internet buff who spends at least 10 hours a day on the Internet, says that his love for Katherine Lester, of Gilford, Michigan was pure and they planned to marry. He also decried attempts to portray him as an internet predator.

According to the AP report, "We love the same things, the same songs and we have similar dreams. I fell in love with her because she is innocent and goodhearted. We found ourselves as soul mates."

Jimzawi, who works in his father's business delivering goods to mini-markets, says that Katherine was willing to convert to Islam and that the pair remain in close contact, speaking to each other at least five hours a day via Internet phone calls.

According to the report, earlier this month, Katherine boarded a flight to Israel after slipping out of her mother's house. At a stopover in Amman, Jordan, U.S. authorities seized her passport and sent her back home.

Jimzawi says, "When I realized she wasn't coming I felt my whole world collapse…My tears didn't stop and I couldn't sleep for three days."