He describes they Syrian conflict and gruesome recruitment videos from ISIL.
By Stephen Montemayor
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Community leaders also said the government's case is based on entrapment.
A government witness testified Thursday morning about the civil conflict in Syria and propaganda videos that prosecutors say drew three young Minneapolis men to communicate with an Islamist group there, as Minnesota’s terror recruitment trial entered its fourth day.
In a packed courtroom in Minneapolis, federal prosecutors began laying out their case that the three young defendants conspired to leave the United States and join the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL).
Abdirahman Daud, 22; Mohamed Farah, 22; and Guled Omar, 21, are charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIL and to commit murder outside the United States, with the latter charge carrying a possible life sentence.
In their opening statements on Wednesday, attorneys presented clashing views of who instigitated the alleged conspiracy; two defense lawyers pinned much of the blame on a young Somali-American who has since become a government witness, while the prosecution insisted that the three defendants fully intended to follow previous attempts by young Twin Cities men who joined ISIL.
Role of paid FBI informant looms large at ISIL trial in Minnesota - By Stephen Montemayor
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who is presiding over the trial, warned jurors early this week that they might be shown gruesome images from ISIL recruitment videos that allegedly first attracted the interest of the three defendants.
Later on Thursday, advocates from Women Against Military Madness and Minnesota’s Anti-War Committee were expected to rally outside the federal courthouse to protest what they said has been a pattern of government spying and harassment of Twin Cities Muslims.