Three Somali-American men from Minnesota made persistent efforts to join ISIS militants in Syria and conspired to help the group, a prosecutor said in closing arguments on Tuesday in their federal jury trial.
AhlulBayt News Agency – Three Somali-American men from Minnesota made persistent efforts to join ISIS militants in Syria and conspired to help the group, a prosecutor said in closing arguments on Tuesday in their federal jury trial.
Mohamed Farah, Abdirahman Daud and Guled Omar are charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and commit murder outside the United States, charges that could result in a life sentence for each if they are convicted.
They participated wholeheartedly in the conspiracy from early 2014 through April 2015, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Docherty told jurors in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.
They were going to put themselves under the control of ISIS, and they knew that they would be ordered to kill, Docherty said.
Farah’s attorney said his client planned to go to Syria and was willing to die fighting with anti-government forces, but had no plan to join ISIS.
“Right or wrong, that is not a crime,” attorney Murad Mohammad told jurors.
Prosecutors brought similar charges against 10 men they said were part of a group of extended family and friends who sometimes took classes on Islam together and planned to go overseas to fight for ISIS.