https://socialistaction.org/2016/12/10/somali-youth-sentenced-in-minneapolis-terror-trial/
Somali youth sentenced in ‘Minneapolis Terror Trial’
/ 18 hours ago
dec-2016-somali-motherBy KAREN SCHRAUFNAGEL
MINNEAPOLIS—The show trial dubbed by our local capitalist media,
“Minnesota’s Terror Trial,” ended in November with the sentencing of the
nine young men (eight Somali and one Oromo) who pled to or were
convicted of charges relating to alleged attempts to join the
“designated foreign terrorist organization” ISIS (the Islamic State).
The pre-sentence period—which lasted for five and a half months—and
sentencing were another roller coaster ride through the Criminal
Injustice System for the young men, their families, and their
communities. They have been on this roller coaster since the Countering
Violent Extremism Program (“CVE”) came to town almost three years ago.
It could have been dubbed the “CVE Trial” if the media were more
concerned with accuracy and less concerned with flash. District Attorney
for Minnesota Andrew Luger has been the program’s champion and point
person since its inception, bringing together Homeland Security, the
FBI, and state, county, and city law enforcement agencies and bearing
down on the local Somali community with enticements and entrapments
designed and destined to “divide and conquer” this previously cohesive
community of immigrants and first generation American citizens.
It was frequently rumored that Andrew Luger would ride the constant
media coverage generated by these arrests, trials, convictions and
sentences all the way to Washington, D.C. as Hillary Clinton’s Attorney
General.
In this process the judge is supposed to play a mediator role between
the prosecution and defense, seeking the truth and insuring some measure
of “fairness,” but working-class people and oppressed communities know
this system has never served us. Marx and Engels wrote in the “Communist
Manifesto”: “Your jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into
law for all,” and nearly 170 years later, this is as true as ever.
Judge Michael J. Davis, Senior District Court Judge for Minnesota,
showed remarkable hubris from start to finish. The fact that a Black,
civil rights award-winning jurist has taken it upon himself to find and
eliminate what he repeatedly referred to as a “terror cell” in the
Somali community is surely no accident. At trial he took copious notes,
and during sentencing he repeatedly referred to a “nine to 20-person
cell” that is still active.
Before the final day of sentencing, when those convicted at trial were
to be sentenced, the judge told the packed courtroom, “This community
has to understand that there is a jihadist cell in this community—its
tentacles spread ou.” (illustrating yet again that he neither
understands the actual meaning of “jihad” nor comprehends his limited
role in presiding over these trials and passing sentence on these
particular young men).
The two young men who cooperated with the prosecution and testified
against their friends, Abdullahi Yusuf and Abdirizak Warsame, were the
first to be sentenced and they received the lightest sentences—time
served for Yusuf and 30 months for Warsame—confirming for us all that
the judge had no intention of listening even to his own hired
“de-radicalization” expert, who had deemed Warsame’s risk of
re-offending (meaning trying again to join a terrorist group) to be high
and designated him dangerous.
The prosecution took the unusual step of testifying on behalf of these
cooperators and even though the judge himself said he still believes
Warsame is a “jihadist,” he closely followed the prosecution’s lead and
issued a two and a half year sentence, an appropriate reward for a job
well done at trial: “For the next round of sentencings, it’s a whole new
ballgame. So count your blessings.”
This “next round” of sentencing was for the four young men who pled
guilty but did not cooperate with the prosecution. The prosecution was
asking for 15 years each for Zacharia Abdurahman, Hamza Ahmed, Hanan
Musse, and Adnan Farah. The extremely prejudicial ISIS videos that
played such a dramatic part in the trial were back for sentencing. The
judge revealed that he watched hours and hours of these videos to
prepare himself to issue sentences.
With each defendant in turn he proceeded to clear the courtroom of young
children and play a gruesome video, continuously prodding the defendant:
“How could you watch this? You watched video after video over and over.
How could you support this organization? Are you a terrorist?”
As at trial, it was clear the men were taken as ISIS proxies, as if
watching these videos was equivalent to personally committing the
atrocities. “I am a terrorist” defendant after defendant declared in shame.
The defense attorneys seemed to agree that the best strategy was to
accept the label of “terrorist,” argue that the experience since being
arrested had enabled a transformation, and beg for mercy. It was a very
demeaning process, excruciatingly painful to watch for those who care
about the defendants personally or care about justice generally. And it
was all the more painful because the mercy that was begged for was not
granted. Abdurahman, Ahmed, Musse, and Farah will serve 10 years each.
On the final day, the young men who were convicted at trial on charges
including Conspiracy to Murder outside the United States, which carries
a possible life sentence, appeared one after the other in Judge Davis’
courtroom. The overflow room that had been used for the previous two
days was not available, and those who were not family or media (or
members of the jury, who returned to watch the sentencing) were made to
wait in the lobby.
For Guled Omar’s sentencing, in an unprecedented move, no one was
allowed even in the lobby. The building was cleared and we waited
outside, following tweets from reporters in the courtroom to keep up
with the proceedings.
While the capitalist press has implied that some defendants accepted
pleas (which meant they must be guilty) while others CHOSE to go to
trial (showing a “refusal to take responsibility for their actions”) and
many supporters have asserted, equally problematically, that the bravest
young men from the group steadfastly refused to plead to something they
did not do and insisted on going to trial, both of these positions
mistakenly placed power in the hands of the defendants that they never
really had.
The truth is that the Criminal Injustice system in this country does not
give defendants this level of self-determination. Those who pled guilty
did so under the enormous pressure of multiple charges, each carrying
potentially long sentences, knowing that members of their circle had
already succumbed to the pressure. Some were even “cooperating” with the
prosecution, knowing that no Muslim tried on such charges during this
seemingly endless “War on Terror” has been found “not guilty” by a jury.
If that pressure were not enough, a Superseding Indictment was filed in
October of 2015. In that indictment, filed more than six months after
the bulk of the arrests in this case, the charge of Conspiracy to Commit
Murder Abroad—which carries a potential life sentence—was added to the
list of charges on the five young men remaining. At that point, it
seemed inevitable that anyone offered the chance to plead to the lesser
charge, carrying a 15-year sentence, would do so.
This was a chance that was never offered to Mohamed Farah, Abdirahman
Daud, or Guled Omar. To his credit Adnan Farah held out until the trail
was almost ready to begin. He was being pressured mercilessly to not
only plead, but to testify against his older brother. Leverage seems to
be the only reason he was ever charged and his 10-year sentence is
likely punishment not for anything he actually did but for how long he
held out against the full power of the US government.
As for the elder Farah, Daud, and Omar, the prosecution had decided
these young men were going on trial for their lives. At the end of a
deeply flawed trial, the three were found guilty by a jury of the
prosecution’s peers.
The prosecution was seeking 30 years each for Mohamed Farah and
Abdirahman Daud, and 40 years for Guled Omar, the one they decided was
the ringleader of the alleged conspiracy.
Those who see a different kind of conspiracy afoot would point out that
Guled was one of the first people the FBI approached when CVE came to
town. They wanted him to work with them, spying on his friends. He
refused over and over again. So the FBI decided he was dangerous and
drew a target on his back. It is possible that Guled, like Adnan, was
punished not for what he actually did, but for what he would NOT do—for
refusing to help the government send his friends to jail.
Mohamed Farah was the first to appear. He was made to watch the graphic
ISIS video that ends with the burning alive of a Jordanian pilot. Had
Mohamed Farah set a Jordanian pilot on fire? It did not matter. The
judge sentenced the 22-year-old to 30 years.
The next to appear was Abdirahman Daud, and the same public shaming that
we had become so familiar with took place. This time the judge seemed to
engage in genuine dialog with the defendant. He wanted Daud to know that
he doesn’t hate Islam, that he will challenge anyone who claims Islam is
a dirty religion. The rapport melted away as the judge passively read
the sentence—30 years.
And finally, it was time to sentence Guled Omar. “Your brother is in
Somalia fighting with Al-Shabaab. You have another brother who has
gotten in trouble as a result of your case,” the Judge declared, again
showing an uncanny inability to focus on what the young men were found
guilty of by the jury. The prosecutor called him “irredeemable,” but the
judge seemed more concerned with his charisma. “You’re charismatic, and
that’s why you are being locked up for the period that you are.” The
21-year-old received a 35-year sentence.
Abdirahman’s mother commented to me that it almost felt like there was
no Judge in this case, just the defendant, her boy, against the entire
government. No mediator between them, just a government mouthpiece. It
was clear from the start and throughout that this prosecution was
political in nature. Now it falls on all of us to stand by these young
men and their families through their harsh sentences. No Justice, Just US.
Photo: Farhiyo Mohamed, right, the mother of defendant Abdirahman Daud,
and a second woman emerge in tears from the federal courthouse in
Minneapolis after the verdict was delivered in the ISIL trial. Jim Gerhz
/ Minneapolis Star Tribune
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December 10, 2016 in Africa, Anti-War, Black Liberation, Civil
Liberties, Immigration, Minneapolis, Police & FBI. Tags: Somalis
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