Another Minnesota man indicted for supporting terrorists

Another Minnesota man indicted for supporting terrorists

By Brittany Falkers

A local Somali man was indicted Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on charges of conspiring to provide support to terrorist, according to the Star Tribune.

            Omer Abdi Mohamed, a 23-year-old unemployed employment counselor and father of a two-month-old boy, was also indicted on charges of conspiracy to "kill, kidnap, main or injure" people in foreign countries, the Star Tribune said.

            Kare11 News also reported investigation into the recruitment of Minnesota Somalis to fight in Somalia.

            Mohamed, of Minneapolis, is the sixth Somali man with local ties to be charged in connection with a two-year-old federal counterterrorism investigation aimed at finding out who recruited up to 20 local men of Somali decent to return to their homeland and train and fight with the terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, the Star Tribune said.

            Some of the men who left to return to their homeland were in their early 20s. Others to go were in their teens, leaving before their senior year of high school, according to the Star Tribune.

            If convicted, Mohamed faces a potential maximum penalty of 15 years in prison on court one, 15 years in prison on court two, and life determined by a federal district court judge, Kare11 News said.      

            Four other Somali-American men from Minnesota or who have ties to Minnesota have pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to charges related to this case.  Three of those men pleaded guilty earlier this year, and admitted to travelling to Somalia and attending an Al-Shabab training camp, the Star Tribune said.