Sacramento Man Pleads Not Guilty To Lying About Syria Trip
SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- An Iraqi-born man living in Sacramento pleaded not guilty Friday to a federal charge that he lied to investigators about traveling to Syria to fight against the government there two years ago.
Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, was arrested on suspicion of lying to federal investigators. He is not formally suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. The alleged lies, however, could lead to eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine for Al-Jayab if he is convicted of making a false statement involving international terrorism.
Defense attorney Ben Galloway said Friday that Al-Jayab never planned attacks in the United States and told the judge that his client is suffering by being held in isolation. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Kendall Newman told Galloway to talk to jail officials and the U.S. Marshals Service regarding those matters. The judge scheduled Al-Jayab to appear in court again on March 17 and he remains in custody in Sacramento without bail.
The complaint filed on January 6, 2016 against Al-Jayab, described as a Palestinian born in Iraq who came to the United States as an Iraqi refugee in October 2012, alleges that "the defendant traveled to Syria to take up arms with terrorist organizations and concealed that conduct from immigration authorities," said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner. "While he represented a potential safety threat, there is no indication that he planned any acts of terrorism in this country."
The complaint also alleges that Al-Jayab communicated on social media with other individuals about his intent to return to Syria to fight for terrorist organizations.
Between November 2013 and January 2014, Al-Jayab allegedly reported on social media that he was in Syria fighting with various terrorist organizations, including Ansar al-Islam, a designated foreign terrorist organization since 2004. In January 2014, he returned to the U.S. and settled in Sacramento.
The complaint alleges that on Oct. 6, 2014, Al-Jayab was interviewed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and later by FBI agents, and said he had never been a member of any rebel group or militia, had not provided material support for any group engaged in terrorist activity, and had never assisted a group which used or threatened to use weapons against others. The complaint alleges that all of those answers were false.
When asked what countries he went to, Al-Jayab allegedly said only to Turkey to visit his grandmother and then to Britain. However, the complaint states that when Al-Jayab returned to the U.S. his Customs Declaration Form made no mention of his travel to Turkey or Syria, but instead mentioned Jordan and the U.K.
The complaint alleges, however, that prior to his trip abroad, Al-Jayab communicated with various individuals believed to be in Syria and Iraq, and maintained that in order to cross the Turkish-Syrian border, they must go "only with the Jabhat al-Nusrah group."
Jabhat al-Nusrah is believed to be fighting against the Syrian military and was designated by the U.S. Department of State in December 2012, as an "alias for al-Qa'ida in Iraq."
According to the complaint, Al-Jayab allegedly said via electronic communication prior to his trip abroad, "America will not isolate me from my Islamic duty" and described in detail his past involvement in fighting with militant groups in Iraq and Syria.
Analysis of IP addresses and other information established that Al-Jayab accessed the Internet via a satellite that covered both eastern Turkey and areas of northern Syria during his travels abroad, according to the complaint.
The complaint also alleges that Al-Jayab was considering joining "the State," which investigators believed to be the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL (also known as ISIS) which was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in May 2014.
Investigators said in the complaint that there is probable cause to believe that Al-Jayab "called for, helped with, or committed the killing and intentional and severe injury of any person" while abroad.
Photos of Al-Jayab, acquired from his Facebook page, show Al-Jayab in hip Western clothing posing next to the Golden Gate Bridge, among other locations.
Al-Jayab's case remains under investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
By Hannah Albarazi - Follow her on Twitter