United States v. Mohamed

103 F. Supp. 3d 281, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62002, 2015 WL 2137626
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMay 1, 2015
DocketNo. 13-CR-0527 (WFK)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 103 F. Supp. 3d 281 (United States v. Mohamed) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Mohamed, 103 F. Supp. 3d 281, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62002, 2015 WL 2137626 (E.D.N.Y. 2015).

Opinion

WILLIAM F. KUNTZ, II, District Judge:

Alhassane Ould Mohamed (“Defendant”), also known as “Cheibani,” was indicted on September 13, 2013 for one count of murder of an internationally protected person and one count of attempted murder of an internationally protected person. Dkt. 1 (“Indictment”). Defendant was arrested in Mali on November 25, 2013 and has been detained in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, New York, since March 12, 2014 while awaiting trial. On July 15, 2014, the United States Attorney General issued Special Administrative Measures (“SAMs”) governing Defendant’s conditions of detention. On January 29, 2015, Defendant filed a motion in limine to vacate the Special Administrative Measures in full or, in the alternative, to vacate or modify various sections of the SAMs. Dkt. 29-1 (“Def.Mot.”) For the reasons stated below, Defendant’s motion to vacate or modify the Special Administrative Measures is DENIED in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Defendant’s Personal Background

Defendant is a forty-four-year-old man born in Gao, Mali. Def. Mot. Ex. U at 1. [283]*283He has had no formal education and says he cannot read, write, or calculate. Id. at 2. He speaks French and Arabic, but no English. Def. Mot. at 11. He has at various times worked as an apprentice to his father (who was an administrator for forest protection services), as a chauffeur, and as a car and cattle dealer. Id. at 2. His right lung collapsed in March or April of 2007, leaving him with only one lung. Def. Mot. Ex. J at 2.

Defendant’s living relatives include a mother, children, and siblings, all in Mali. Def. Mot. Ex. J at 1-2.

Defendant’s Alleged Crimes

Defendant is accused of perpetrating an attack against an American Embassy official in Niamey, Niger on December 23, 2000. Def. Mot. Ex. A at 2. On that date, William Bultemeier, Defense Attaché Systems Coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Niamey, was leaving a Niamey restaurant and approaching his diplomatic vehicle. Id. Defendant allegedly accosted Bultemeier with a pistol, accompanied by an accomplice 1 carrying .an AK-47. Id. Defendant allegedly demanded that Bultemeier turn over the keys to the car, but when Bultem-eier did not obey, Defendant shot him. Id. When Staff Sergeant Christopher McNeely came to Bultemeier’s aid, Defendant’s accomplice allegedly fired the AK-47 at both McNeely and Bultemeier. Id. Defendant and the accomplice allegedly took Bultemeier’s keys from his pockets and drove away in Bultemeier’s diplomatic vehicle. McNeely survived after medical evacuation from Niger. Id. Bultemeier died from the gunshot wounds. Id.

Defendant and his accomplice allegedly drove the stolen diplomatic vehicle to Gao, Mali. Id. On December 26, 2000, Malian police discovered the vehicle in Timbuktu, Mali, at which point Defendant’s DNA allegedly was discovered in the vehicle. Id. Malian police searched Defendant’s home in Gao, and discovered a hidden pistol and items allegedly taken from the stolen vehicle. Id. Thereafter, Defendant was taken into Malian custody. However, in May 2002, after being. detained for nearly a year and a half, Defendant allegedly escaped from Malian custody during a medical visit. Id.

On September 13, 2013, Defendant was indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of New York for the murder of Bultemeier and attempted murder of McNeely. Id. French military forces apprehended Defendant in northern Mali on November 25, 2013. Id. After his arrest, Defendant was turned over first to Malian authorities and then to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (“FBI”). Def. Mot. at 4. Once in FBI custody, Defendant was flown to New York to face the indictment charge. Id.

Defendant’s Alleged Terrorist Connections

The Government alleges Defendant was part of a December 2009 attack on Saudi Arabian officials in Niger, for which he was sentenced to twenty years in prison in Niger. Def. Mot. Ex. A at 2. Defendant allegedly escaped from the prison in Niger in June 2013, accompanied by approximately twenty-one other inmates. The inmates allegedly coordinated with members of the Nigeria-based terrorist group Boko Haram to launch an attack on the prison that killed three guards. Id. at 3. The Government also claims Defendant admitted to being a member of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (“MNLA”), a rebel group that has attacked the governments of Niger and Mali. Id. Defendant was allegedly traveling with three armed members of MNLA at the [284]*284time of his 2013 arrest by French forces. Id.

The Government further alleges that Defendant informed FBI agents he was close childhood friends with several leaders of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (“MUJAO”) but had not been in recent contact with them. Id. The Government, citing the United States Department of State’s (the “State Department”) classification, describes MUJAO as a “splinter group” of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (“AQIM”); MUJAO is responsible for several violent attacks in the Sahel region, including the abduction of aid workers and diplomats. Id.

Furthermore, according to the Government, Defendant has also admitted to knowing Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the leader of the “al-Qaeda controlled designated terrorist group” the al-Mulathamun Battalion, which claimed responsibility for a January 2013 attack on an Algerian gas facility that killed 38 people. Id. The Government, citing the State Department’s account, claims that MUJAO merged with the al-Mulathamun Battalion in August 2013 to create a new group called al-Murabitoun. Id. at 3-4. Defendant allegedly had contacts on both sides of the merger between the organizations.

Defendant argues that the Government relies almost entirely on “guilt by association” to allege most of the aforementioned terrorist affiliations. Def. Mot. at 7. The Government does not show, or even allege, that Defendant is or was a member of MUJAO, AQIM, the al-Mulathamun Battalion, or al-Murabitoun. The only group of which the Government alleges Defendant is a member is the MNLA; it further alleges Defendant “was traveling with three armed members” of the MNLA when he was arrested in 2013. Def. Mot. Ex. A at 3. However, Defendant argues the MNLA differs from the other groups to which the Government attempts to link Defendant in one key way: it has not been designated a foreign terrorist group by the State Department,2 and its political goals are local and secular rather than global and motivated by religious fanaticism. Def. Mot. at 7; Def. Mot. Ex. X. Defendant argues that the MNLA is a separatist movement by the Tuareg, a particular ethnic group of “semi-nomadic pastoralists of North African Berber origin” in the northern and western Sahara. Def. Mot. at 7. Thus, of the militant groups referenced by the Government, Defendant argues the only one for which the Government alleges a connection to Defendant beyond acquaintanceship with high-ranking members has a local rather than global agenda.

The Special Administrative Measures

On July 15, 2014, the United States Attorney General (“USAG”) requested the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to impose Special Administrative Measures (“SAMs”) upon Defendant. Def. Mot. Ex. A.

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Related

Pinson v. U.S. Department of Justice
202 F. Supp. 3d 86 (District of Columbia, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
103 F. Supp. 3d 281, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62002, 2015 WL 2137626, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mohamed-nyed-2015.