Two Swedes charged for Somali terror crime plots
Two Swedish citizens of Somali origin tied to an al-Qaeda-linked extremist group were charged in Gothenburg on Friday with "planning terrorist crimes" in Somalia.
According to the charge sheet, Mohamoud Jama, 22, and Bille Ilias Mohamed, 26, are members of the Somali Islamist al-Shabaab, which has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and controls most of southern and central Somalia.
The two men, one arrested in Gothenburg in May and the other in Stockholm the following month, are suspected of having plotted suicide attacks in Somalia, with the aim of "murder" or "maiming" a large number of people and causing "massive damage to property," the charge sheet said.
"There was significant danger the crimes would be carried out," it said.
The prosecution, which based its case on interrogations of the two suspects, witness accounts and a long line of tapped telephone conversations, claimed to have proof the two men had been in contact with al-Shabaab leader Yassin Ismail Ahmed.
The recorded telephone conversations also showed that Mohamed had attended an al-Shabaab training camp in Somalia and that he aimed to "return to Somalia and wanted to become a martyr," while Jama "was preparing for a future suicide mission," the charge sheet said.
A clerk at the Gothenburg court told AFP the men's trial was set to begin on October 28th and the hearings would take six days.
It remained unclear exactly when the proceedings would conclude, but likely by November 16th, with the verdict probably landing around two weeks later, the clerk said.
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According to the charge sheet, Mohamoud Jama, 22, and Bille Ilias Mohamed, 26, are members of the Somali Islamist al-Shabaab, which has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and controls most of southern and central Somalia.
The two men, one arrested in Gothenburg in May and the other in Stockholm the following month, are suspected of having plotted suicide attacks in Somalia, with the aim of "murder" or "maiming" a large number of people and causing "massive damage to property," the charge sheet said.
"There was significant danger the crimes would be carried out," it said.
The prosecution, which based its case on interrogations of the two suspects, witness accounts and a long line of tapped telephone conversations, claimed to have proof the two men had been in contact with al-Shabaab leader Yassin Ismail Ahmed.
The recorded telephone conversations also showed that Mohamed had attended an al-Shabaab training camp in Somalia and that he aimed to "return to Somalia and wanted to become a martyr," while Jama "was preparing for a future suicide mission," the charge sheet said.
A clerk at the Gothenburg court told AFP the men's trial was set to begin on October 28th and the hearings would take six days.
It remained unclear exactly when the proceedings would conclude, but likely by November 16th, with the verdict probably landing around two weeks later, the clerk said.
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