COLUMBUS, Ohio – A tablet computer was reportedly among the items that a West Side man supplied to members of a terrorist organization during a trip to the Middle East.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
After a magistrate set bail at $1 million for Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien claimed that the 23-year-old West Side man “did travel to the Mideast and that he did provide devices and he did meet with people associated with designated…federal terrorist organizations.”
O’Brien said the “device” was a tablet computer.
Mohamud did not speak during the arraignment, during which O’Brien asked Common Pleas Magistrate Elizabeth Watters for a bail of $2.5 million, calling Mohamud a public-safety threat and a flight risk.
Defense attorney Sam Shamansky argued that O’Brien’s request was excessive for a defendant facing what he called two “low-level felonies,” the most serious of which is punishable by no more than three years in prison.
Shamansky said his client, a native of Somalia, is a U.S. citizen, has lived in central Ohio since about 1999, and has strong family ties in the area.
“He is entitled to a reasonable bond,” said Shamansky, who entered not-guilty pleas for his client.
Mohamud, of Dulane Court, was arrested on Saturday and indicted on Monday on one count each of soliciting or providing support for acts of terror and money laundering in support of terrorism. The arrest followed a 1 1/2 year investigation by the FBI, O’Brien said.
In a motion filed on Tuesday, O’Brien wrote that Mohamud “provided material support and resources or electronic devices to persons engaged in terrorism in the Middle East and has traveled to that area of the world.”
Prosecutors have provided few specifics about those activities, including whether Mohamud is suspected of planning terrorist attacks in central Ohio. The local offices of the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office have declined to comment on the case.