Wednesday June 1, 2016
Somali-American defendants tried on charges of assisting Daesh (ABC News)
A US federal court has put on trial three Somali-American men from the US state of Minnesota on charges of plotting to join and help the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group (ISIL) in Syria.On Tuesday, the US District Court in Minnesota tried Mohamed Farah, 22, Abdirahman Daud, 22, and Guled Omar, 21, over conspiring to provide material support to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and to commit murder outside the US, charges that could carry a possible life sentence for each of them in case of conviction.
“They participated wholeheartedly in the conspiracy from early 2014 through April 2015,” said Assistant Attorney John Docherty, adding that, “They were going to put themselves under the control of ISIL, and they knew that they would be ordered to kill and would have to carry out those orders.”According to state officials, the three men are allegedly part of a group of 10 people that faced similar federal charges earlier. Six of them have already pleaded guilty to providing material support to the terrorist group, and another is believed to be in Syria, where the Takfiris are active.
Reports said federal prosecutors spent more than two weeks offering evidence and testimony from two dozen witnesses, plus audio-taped conversations to support charges against the defendants.
Docherty said the defendants made "persistent efforts" to join the terrorist group and the evidence supported the testimony of friends turned witnesses.
"There simply is no entrapment in this case," he said, adding that the defendants were "itching" to go.
Farah and Daud are also charged with perjury while Omar is charged with attempting to use $5,000 in federal student aid to fund a trip to Syria, prosecutors said.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.
United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the crisis as a result of over five years of conflict in the Arab country
Some US-led Western countries and their regional allies are accused of supporting the militant groups, wreaking havoc there.