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Detroit Free Press – August 10, 2006
Charges cite cell phones:
Two Dearborn men linked to terrorism
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
Two Dearborn men were charged Wednesday (8/9/2006) in Ohio with money laundering in support of terrorism by allegedly buying hundreds of cell phones that they planned to send overseas, authorities said Wednesday.
Osama Sobhi Abulhassan, 20, and Ali Houssaiky, 20, a former star running back at Fordson High School in Dearborn, were charged in Marietta, Ohio, after they were arrested Tuesday on a traffic violation, said Susan Vessels, assistant prosecutor in Washington County.
In recent months, federal law enforcement officials have been concerned about suspicious customers buying large numbers of cell phones, Vessels said. In this case, police found about a dozen cell phones and more than $10,000 in the vehicle, she said.
Abulhassan and Houssaiky initially were charged with obstructing justice after they were accused of lying to police about why they bought the phones, Vessels said. They later told police they bought them for someone in Dearborn, who may be the focus of an FBI investigation, authorities said.
Vessels would not comment on how the two men were tied to terrorism. But she said an Ohio law that went into effect this year allows prosecutors to charge people suspected of using money to purchase items that would support terrorists or that terrorists would use.
Prosecutors asked for $1-million bonds, but the judge set bond at $200,000 each, Vessels said.
Houssaiky's family members were shocked by the allegations, said Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who met with them Wednesday. Houssaiky and Abulhassan work in the cell phone business and were on a normal business route that was legitimate, Hamad said the family told him.
"I hope this is a case where the government is not overreacting, overreaching and over-reading," Hamad said. "This is sensitive and serious. Nobody should rush to judgment."…..
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060810/NEWS05/608100332/1007/NEWS
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