Terror Suspect Released To Halfway House Kept Box Cutter Under Bed

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A Minneapolis man convicted of trying to help ISIS is back in jail after a box cutter was found under his bed at a halfway house.

Abdullahi Yusuf, 19, has been at the house since last February.

Some have referred to his situation as an "experiment in de-radicalization."

Yusuf was ordered back to jail in late April. It was only Monday, in a court filing, that the information about the box cutter surfaced.

And it's just two days before a hearing in which three other accused terror suspects will ask a judge to let them out of jail while they wait for their trials.

Three of the seven terror suspects charged this spring in a conspiracy to join ISIS -- Hamza Ahmed, Hanad Musse and Zacharia Abdurahman -- have submitted separate plans for supervised release to their families.

Hanad Musse's release plan says he would live with an aunt and would follow a strict set of rules, including no unapproved cell phone or internet use. He would be subject to possible court-ordered location monitoring. He would be allowed to worship at a mosque, go to a Lifetime Fitness club, join a basketball league and take online classes at MCTC technical college.

Mohamud Noor is one of the community leaders who submitted an affidavit saying he would help monitor Musse.

"We as a community will help shape a process whereby we can provide them with better opportunities, better outcomes," he said.

The three asking to be released, as well as Abdullahi Yusuf, are all part of what prosecutors say was a larger conspiracy by a group of friends to leave the country and join ISIS.

While this group was all stopped, others from Minnesota did make it to Syria.

Criminal defense attorney Joe Tamburino said Yusuf having a box cutter under his bed won't help the others who are trying to get out.

"A box cutter is a weapon, it's a serious violation," he said. "Since it didn't work with him, it's going to have some impact on the judge deciding to do this again."

In the court document filed Monday Yusuf apparently denied the box cutter was his. Most of the documents in the Yusuf case are not public, so we have few other details.

The hearings for the three seeking to be released will take place Wednesday morning.