Four Yemenis face serious charges in U.S. [Archives:2006/981/Local News]
Associated Press, Sept. 10 ) Four Yemenis have been arrested in two separate incidents in the United States, U.S. media reported.
A federal grand jury in Fresno, Calif., indicted three Yemeni men with U.S. citizenship on Friday for illegally exporting sensitive military equipment – including body armor and chemical protective suits – to Yemen, as well as dealing in U.S. government secrets.
Bakersfield residents Ameen Ali Al-Ruhany, 56, and Mohammed Al-Rahimi, 62, and Ibrahim A. Omer, 40, of Fort Worth, Texas, are charged with exporting stolen sensitive military equipment to Yemen. Al-Ruhany also is charged with acquiring and transmitting secret defense information obtained from an undercover government agent.
According to the indictment, on numerous occasions between June 25, 2005 and Aug. 31, 2006, Al-Ruhany received secret defense documents from an undercover government agent and then allegedly transmitted them to Yemen via fax and courier.
Al-Ruhany also is charged with conspiring with Omer to ship military items to Yemen. The indictment alleges that between Jan. 13, 2003 and Feb. 14, 2004, Al-Ruhany and Omer violated the Arms Export Control Act and international arms trafficking regulations by shipping military equipment, including body armor and chemical protective suits. Such items can't legally be exported from the U.S. without State Department authorization.
Additionally, Al-Ruhany is charged with conspiring with Al-Rahimi to receive stolen government property, which also was sent to Yemen. The indictment alleges that Al-Ruhany purchased military equipment he believed was stolen from the U.S. Army and directed it be shipped to Yemen. Al-Rahimi allegedly traveled to Yemen to broker the sale of the items.
“We'll use all appropriate legal means at our disposal to detect, disrupt and hold accountable those who seek to do us harm, whether they act within or outside our borders,” U.S. attorney McGregor W. Scott stated.
Al-Ruhany's lawyer, Loren N. Kleier, called his client a prominent member of his community and suggested he was set up by federal agents. “They get people to go out and attempt to do things they otherwise wouldn't do,” Kleier added.
Arrested at his Bakersfield cigarette shop, Al-Ruhany will appear before a U.S. magistrate in Bakersfield. Omer was taken into custody in Bossier City, La., and made his first court appearance in Shreveport, La., on Friday. Al-Rahimi remains at large.
If convicted, the men could face up to 10 years imprisonment for each count and up to $1 million in fines.
In other news, Mohammed Ghanem, 21, was jailed Saturday on $500,000 bail after being arraigned on a charge of possessing a weapon in a secure area of an airport.
Ghanem was arrested Thursday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after Transportation Security Administration officers detected a knife “artfully concealed” inside a book, airport spokesman Michael Conway said.
Someone had carved out the inside of the book and placed the knife inside it, Ghanem's attorney, Nabih Ayad said. “He said he didn't know where the knife came from,” Ayad told the Detroit Free Press. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
Born in Yemen, Ghanem now is a permanent legal resident of the U.S. and was returning to Yemen to marry, Ayad stated. However, authorities said Ghanem, who works as a busboy and lives with family members in Hamtramck, Mich., held a one-way ticket to Yemen.
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