From 2016:
MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) – The 9 Minnesota men charged with planning to join ISIS are scheduled to be sentenced next week. Ahead of those court dates, 13 letters were sent to Judge Michael Davis in the case of defendant Abdirahman Yasin Daud, including a letter from state Rep. Ilhan Omar, who on Election Night became with first elected Somali-American lawmaker in the nation.
Rep. Omar asked Judge Davis for “compassion” and a “restorative approach to justice,” concluding that “this ruling can set a precedent and has the potential to be a landmark case in addressing extremism.” Read a complete copy of Rep. Omar’s letter at the bottom of this story.
Daud was one of two young men from the Twin Cities arrested in San Diego in April 2015 in an alleged plot to buy fake passports for travel to Syria. Federal prosecutors requested 30 years in prison for Daud, with a lifetime of supervised release.
The 13 letters sent to Judge Davis on behalf of Daud include similar pleas for leniency from Minneapolis City Council member Abdi Warsame, a Minneapolis Public Schools dean of students, several youth program coordinators and Daud’s own mother and brother. Warsame’s brief letter said Daud “is a young man who has a future ahead of him.”
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