3 Somali-Americans Found Guilty

3 Somali-Americans Found Guilty of Trying to Join Islamic State

Haqhawo Qaasim held a photo on May 9 of Guled Omar, one of three defendants who pleaded not guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State. Credit Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune, via Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — Three Somali-Americans were found guilty by a federal jury on Friday on charges of trying to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State.

The verdict against the three men — Guled Omar, 21; Abdirahman Daud, 22; and Mohamed Farah, 22 — came after about two days of deliberation and about a year after the men were arrested. All three men had pleaded not guilty.

The men were convicted of several charges, the most serious of which was conspiracy to commit murder overseas.

While the young men sat impassively as the verdicts of guilty were read, family members and supporters began to weep and held their hands to their faces. One woman, sobbing, rushed from the courtroom.

The convictions capped a two-year investigation that spanned from Minnesota to California, and led to six other young men pleading guilty to terrorism charges. At a news conference after the verdicts, United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger called it “one of the most important trials” in recent years that spotlighted a wave of radicalization in the country’s largest Somali community.

“They were not misled by a friend or tricked into becoming terrorists,” Mr. Luger said. “Rather, they made a deeply personal decision. They wanted to fight for a brutal terrorist organization, kill innocent people and destroy their families in the process.”

Federal officials defended the inquiry and crucial testimony and recordings made by a friend of the men, Abdirahman Bashir, who worked as a paid informer for investigators. Some members of the defendants’ families and others in the Somali community criticized Mr. Bashir’s role, suggesting the three men were entrapped. Prosecutors rejected that allegation.

“This conspiracy began back in 2014,” Mr. Luger said, adding that the informer did not start working with the government until early 2015. “These people have been long involved with this conspiracy.”

Jury instructions said the government had to show that the men were part of a conspiracy, willful actors who intended “to take the life of a human being” or “to act in callous and wanton disregard of the consequences to human life.”

Prosecutors accused the men of being part of a larger group who met to plot ways to get to Syria. In the 17 days of testimony, the jury of seven women and five men heard from former members of the group and recordings of the defendants that were made by Mr. Bashir.

In his closing arguments, the assistant United States attorney, John Docherty, said the three were “exceptionally persistent” in taking part in a conspiracy that started in the spring of 2014.

“These three defendants convict themselves with the words that come out of their own mouths,” Mr. Docherty said, referring to the tapes from Mr. Bashir. He called the group “exceptionally violent.”

“There simply is no entrapment in this case,” Mr. Docherty said.

Defense lawyers attacked the credibility of the members of the group who pleaded guilty and testified for the government. In all, six men have pleaded guilty to various charges, and a seventh man charged is believed to be in Syria.

A lawyer for Mr. Daud, Bruce Nestor, told jurors that three men were manipulated by the F.B.I. informer, who controlled which conversations were recorded.

A lawyer for Mr. Farah, Murad Mohammad, argued that prosecutors had failed to prove conspiracy charges, saying the three men had taken a humanitarian interest in Syria.

Young men from Minnesota’s Somali community, the nation’s largest, have been a target for terror recruiters. The F.B.I. has said about a dozen people have left Minnesota to join militant groups fighting in Syria in recent years. Since 2007, more than 22 men have joined the Shabab in Somalia.

The trial has engendered a debate over the methods used to catch the accused and the appropriate punishment if found guilty.

The community in and around Minneapolis has seen about a dozen people recruited by extremist groups.


source: nytimes