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Called to Fight
Mukhtar M. Ibrahim

Lawyer: Minnesota terror suspect to plead guilty to aiding ISIS

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Abdirizak Warsame
Abdirizak Warsame
Courtesy of Anoka County Sheriff's Office

A 20-year-old Eagan man accused of providing material support to the ISIS terror group is expected to plead guilty Thursday.

Abdirizak Warsame was the 10th Twin Cities man charged by federal authorities in the massive terrorism investigation that started two years ago.

His attorney, Robert Sicoli, said his client will change his plea Thursday afternoon.

"Mr. Warsame is going to take responsibility for what he did, and that's why he's pleading guilty," Sicoli said. "I can't go into the discussions we have had with the government or anything at this point."

Prosecutors say Warsame encouraged several friends to go abroad to fight with ISIS and at one point was named their leader. He was also accused of providing one of the defendants, Adnan Farah, $200 for Farah's passport application, and seeking to put another traveler, Yusuf Jama, in touch with ISIS contacts. The friends he encouraged to travel and fight have also been charged.

But Warsame was free until December, eight months after six of his friends were arrested on the same day in April last year amid allegations that they had been planning to join ISIS.

He came to court hearings as his friends' cases progressed through the federal court. Warsame knew that investigators were interested in him.

Family members told MPR News in December that the FBI had questioned Warsame and a younger brother in recent years. In August 2014, the family was concerned enough to send the two teens to Chicago to live with their father for a time. Warsame returned to Minnesota in June.

The family's suspicion became true when the FBI came to Warsame's house on a Wednesday evening in December to arrest him.

Four of the six ISIS defendants arrested in April 2015, along with another defendant, Hamza Ahmed, will face trial in May.

Mohamed Farah, Adnan Farah, Guled Omar and Abdirahman Daud and Ahmed will have a pretrial motion hearing on the same day that Warsame is expected to change his plea.

Warsame will become the fourth man to plead guilty to plotting to travel to Syria. He will join Zacharia Abdurahman, Hanad Musse and Abdullahi Yusuf.

Warsame's mother, Deqa Hussen, has been vocal in her condemnation of terrorist groups. She has appeared at town hall meetings alongside U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Luger, urging community members to report suspected activities to the FBI. She also called for cooperation between the Somali community and law enforcement.

Several of his relatives also appeared with Luger at different press conferences.

Warsame's cousin is Mohamed Farah, the leader of the youth group Ka Joog that is trying to prevent young men like Warsame from being caught up in the complex web of terrorist ideology.

Warsame graduated in 2013 from Heritage Academy of Science and Technology in Minneapolis, a school that several other defendants attended. He was a student at Normandale Community College, according to a family member.