Weekly Terrorism Spotlight

Volume 1, Issue 7 (April 28)

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Florida Islamic student terror case widens

Florida Islamic student terror case widens

Attorney conflicts in Islamic terror conspiracy case results in separate trials for Egyptian students from University of South Floirida.

New indictment expands charges to include providing material support to terrorism

A federal court judge in Florida last week said Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, and Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 26, will face trial separately in the terrorism conspiracy case against them.

They are scheduled to be tried before juries starting May 5 for Megahed and July 7 for Mohamed, with additional charges added to the original illegal transport of explosives felony.

Megahed also faces an illegal possession charge for a 20-year total in maximum penalties if found guilty on both felonies.

Mohamed faces that plus charges of providing material support to terrorism, carrying a destructive device related to the material support, possessing a firearm in violation of an Egyptian student visa and demonstrating the use of explosives.

Mohamed’s consequences total life plus 65 years in maximum penalties if found guilty on all counts.

The terrorism conspiracy case stems from a speeding-in-traffic pullover by a Goose Creek, South Carolina, sheriff’s deputy last August 4.

Goose Creek deputies searched Megahed Mohamed’s car on U.S. 176, discovering what bomb experts later determined to be explosive or bomb-making material, police records state.

The traffic stop took place near Charleston Naval Weapons Station, but Megahed and Mohamed are not charged with a specific targeting plot.

The defendants stated to police they, as University of South Florida students at the time, were on an innocent college road trip to see South Carolina beaches.

Attorneys for Megahed and Mohamed also claim the explosives in the car were merely prankster items for making homemade fireworks.

Court records indicate the terror conspiracy case against them includes FBI lab reports about the found materials, the PVC pipes, wires and explosive mixtures such as ammonium nitrates.

Mohamed’s lawyers claim his YouTube video was not for training in bomb making, but he was within his free speech rights to post what he did.

A third associated person, Karim Moussaoui, 28, of Morocco, stands guilty on a firearms charge related to training he and Megahed enjoyed at a Florida shooting range in violation of Moussaoui’s foreign student visa.

Moussaoui originally said he and another Islamic student friend didn’t go to the shooting part of the range during their documented visits.

When photos and video surveillance footage materialized as evidence in the case, Moussaoui claimed he was only posing, wanting a photo souvenir.

Prior published reports indicated Megahed’s brother, Yehia Megahed, was observed sending coded hand signals to him while visiting him in jail, caught on a closed circuit jail-house camera.

Watch Video [Jailhouse video link}

Prosecutors argued the video supported to their claim that the defendants should be kept in jail pending trial because of a wider conspiracy threat, flight from trial or other illegal assistance.

Also adding intrigue to the case are early reports of Egyptian government funding for legal representation in the case.

Egypt foreign ministry official Ahmed el-Qawassni said Egypt is monitoring the case and an attorney is hired for Mohamed who was born in Kuwait to Egyptian parents.

“We are responsible for the sons of Egypt abroad with no exception,” el-Qawassni said last October.

The foreign office disavowed any knowledge of illegal actions in the alleged terrorist mission.