Terrorism Crimes—Jihad Hekmat Dahabi

In February, a federal grand jury in Detroit indicted Marwan Othman El-Hindi, Wassim I. Mazloum, and Mohammad Zaki Amawi on terrorism-related charges.^[1] We discussed Mr. Amawi on February 28. A fourth man, Jihad Hekmat Dahabi, has now been charged with making false statements to “officials investigating what the US government says was a plot to recruit and train terrorists to attack US and allied troops overseas.”^[2]

Mr. Dahabi was interviewed by the FBI and Treasury Department agents in February, and in a second interview, in June, he “admitted providing false statements” about a meeting with Mr. El-Hindi.^[3] According to the government, he said in his June interview “that he prepared paperwork to create a corporation for [Mr.] El-Hindi and an associate,” which was different, allegedly, from what he said in February when he told “investigators that he had not filed the paperwork because he lacked necessary information.”^[4]

Mr. Dahabi, it seems, did not hire an attorney to assist him in his communications with the government.^[5] This is almost always a very bad idea. According to some news reports, Mr. Dahabi changed his story and “came clean” in June after “investigators showed [Mr.] Dahabi parts of secret audio and video recordings of an April 2005 meeting involving [Mr.] Dahabi, [Mr.] El-Hindi and another man—apparently Darren Griffin, the government’s informant in the case.”^[6] Allegedly, Mr. El-Hindi approached Mr. Dahabi to set up a charity to get government grants, and after he realized that “he was mixed up in something nefarious,” he “destroyed all the paper work after [Mr.] El-Hindi left his office.”^[7]

Making false statements to the government is a very harsh federal crime, and when it is in the context of a terrorism investigation, it is even harsher. Whereas a false statement is normally punished by a fine, imprisonment for up to five years, or both, making false statements in a terrorism investigation can be punished with a fine, imprisonment for up to eight years, or both.^[8] However, to successfully prosecute an individual for making false statements, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the false statement is about something material to investigation. In Mr. Dahabi’s case, the government will have to show that the proposed charity is an integral and material part of their investigation into the other three individuals, and that his false statements in the February interview materially impacted their investigation.

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[1] Michigan Man Charged with Lying about Ohio Terrorism Suspect, AP (via Detroit Free Press), Jul. 31, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Amanda Garrett, et al., Michigan Man Faces Charges Related to Toledo Terror Probe, Plain Dealer, Aug. 1, 2006.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a).