A Minneapolis man, Abdisatar Ahmed Hassan, has been accused of attempting to join the Islamic State (IS) group, federal prosecutors announced on Friday. The 22-year-old made his first court appearance on charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He has been ordered to remain in custody without bail until a detention hearing on March 5.
Katherian Roe, the chief federal defender for Minnesota, confirmed that her office will be representing Hassan but declined to comment on the case.
According to a criminal complaint, Hassan, a naturalized U.S. citizen, made two unsuccessful attempts in December to leave Minnesota for Somalia, allegedly to join the Islamic State group. Although he claimed he was traveling to visit family, authorities noted he had no relatives in the country.
The FBI’s investigation revealed Hassan had expressed support for the Islamic State group in social media posts. He also reportedly praised Shamsud-Din Jabbar on TikTok following the New Orleans truck attack, which killed 14 people on New Year’s Day. Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native and U.S. Army veteran, had shared videos pledging allegiance to the group and threatening violence before driving a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street. He was fatally shot by police at the scene after an exchange of gunfire.
Investigators also found that Hassan had recently posted a video of himself driving with an Islamic State flag inside his vehicle. The FBI reported seeing him driving with the flag again on Wednesday, leading to his arrest the following day.
Authorities also linked Hassan to past support for extremist groups. The criminal complaint mentioned that New York police had alerted the FBI last May about his social media activity endorsing the Somali militant group al-Shabab. Investigators also discovered propaganda content from al-Shabab and the Islamic State group on his TikTok and Facebook accounts. Additionally, he allegedly exchanged messages with a Facebook account that encouraged Somali speakers to join the Islamic State group.
Authorities monitored Hassan’s travel attempts in December. On Dec. 13, FBI agents observed him at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport trying to check in for a flight to Somalia, but he was unable to proceed due to missing travel documents. He reportedly made another attempt on Dec. 29, successfully boarding a flight to Chicago. However, after an extensive interview with Customs and Border Protection officers, he missed his connecting flight to Ethiopia and returned to Minneapolis.
Hassan is among several individuals from Minnesota who have either attempted to leave or successfully joined the Islamic State group in recent years. In 2016, nine Minnesotans were convicted on federal charges for conspiring to join the group, and last June, a Minnesota man who had fought for the Islamic State group in Iraq was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
