Minnesotan charged with trying to join ISIS pleads guilty

An 18-year-old Inver Grove Heights man pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to join the terrorist group ISIS in Syria.

Abdullahi Yusuf is the first defendant to plead guilty in the federal government's investigation into Minnesotans who have enlisted or tried to enlist with the terror group.

A former student at Inver Hills Community College and a U.S. citizen, Yusuf pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

He faces up to 15 years in prison but could receive a reduced sentence in exchange for his plea.

In federal court Thursday in Minneapolis, he admitted to Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis that he played a "minor role" in the conspiracy.

Yusuf said from about March through May 2014, he attended meetings where people were discussing their desire to join forces fighting the regime of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

He also said he got some help from someone to pay for his application for an expedited passport and for a round-trip plane ticket to Istanbul. That ticket cost nearly $1,500, and prosecutors haven't yet said publicly where the money came from.

In May, Yusuf tried to board a plane to Istanbul from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. He admitted today he planned to meet up with another Twin Cities man, Abdi Nur, in Turkey and then join ISIS. He also said Nur drove him to the light rail station, where Yusuf caught a train to the airport.

The FBI detained Yusuf at the airport and questioned him. Nur, however, caught his flight and is believed to be currently fighting for ISIS.

Six months after Yusuf was intercepted at the airport, federal prosecutors charged Yusuf and sought his detention.

But instead of locking him up until his trial, Judge Davis released Yusuf to a halfway house, where he could receive counseling. Yusuf moved to the forefront of an experiment of whether American terror suspects could be rehabilitated.

As part of his rehabilitation he'll have the chance to meet with "coaches," like social workers or former teachers. He may even re-enroll in a community college this summer.

Observers see Yusuf as a test case for plans to rehabilitate radicalized individuals who pose a low risk of harming the community. His attorney, Jean Brandl, noted in court the timing of his actions. Yusuf tried to leave for Syria last May, before ISIS' videos of beheading hostages circulated around the world.

Nonetheless, Brandl says Yusuf wants to take responsibility for his mistakes.

"He wants to move on, and leave this behind him in terms of changing his life to show this is not who he is," Brandl said after Thursday's hearing. "What happened back then is not who he is now."

Davis said Thursday that Yusuf could remain in the halfway house until his sentencing. A date has not yet been set.