Judge rejects release plans for Minnesota terror suspects

Three young men accused of trying to join the ISIS terror group are, left to right: Zacharia Abdurahman, Hanad Musse and Hamza Ahmed. Courtesy of Sherburne County Jail

By Brandt Williams & Mukhtar Ibrahim
Wednesday, July 8, 2015

A federal judge Wednesday turned down requests to let three Minnesota men accused of trying to join the ISIS terror group live under supervised release and out of jail while awaiting trial.

Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis said the plan for Hamza Ahmed, 20, "has some merit to it. But I don't want to do something haphazard."

Davis also turned down supervised release for Zacharia Abdurahman and Hanad Musse, both 19.

The judge, however, indicated he was prepared to take a closer look at the release plans of all three men following court hearings in September.

Lawyers for the men had proposed allowing Somali-American community leaders to supervise the suspects and help them reintegrate into the community.

Before their arrests, the suspects were living with their families, enrolled in school and attending mosques, and some were employed, the attorneys argued.

Prosecutors, however, countered that the proposed release plans did nothing to guarantee the men wouldn't flee to Syria to join ISIS.

Jon Hopeman, Abdurahman's attorney, said on Wednesday that his client had community support, including a local mosque whose imam has preached against extremism since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

He said Abdurahman was ready to quit his travel plans to Syria shortly before he was arrested.

Abdurahman was "charged based on words, not action," Hopeman added.

Counterterrorism experts have been closely following the developments in Minneapolis because the United States typically doesn't offer rehabilitation programs to accused terrorists.

Davis has expressed interest in looking at less restrictive conditions for the suspects as part of a test to see if radicalized Americans can be pulled back from the call of terror and returned to their communities.

In January, Davis allowed terror suspect Abdullahi Yusuf to be placed in an experimental program where Yusuf received counseling and civic education classes through Heartland Democracy, a Minneapolis nonprofit.

Yusuf, however, was ordered back to jail in April after a utility knife was found under his bed. Yusuf said he knew nothing about the knife.

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