A hearing is scheduled today in which two San Diego men accused of supporting a Somalia-based terrorist organization will ask a federal judge to grant them bail.
Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, 38, and Issa Doreh, 54, currently are held without bail, each in solitary confinement, in a special unit of the Metropolitan Correctional Center downtown.
The men are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
A third man, Basaaly Saeed Moalin, faces the same charges plus an additional count of providing material support to terrorists.
At a short hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge William Gallo on Friday, Maolin agreed to waive his right to a hearing on bail until an unspecified later date.
Prosecutors last week described the defendants as a flight risk, while the judge said they could also be considered dangerous, based on his reading of the indictment.
The indictment, handed up on Oct. 22, alleges all three defendants conspired to send money to al-Shabaab, based in the East African country.
The indictment alleges that in late 2007 and early 2008, a top military leader of the terrorist group asked for money from Moalin, who coordinated fund- raising efforts and financial transfers with his co-defendants.
Moalin also allegedly provided a house in Somalia to al-Shabaab, knowing it would be used to prepare for and carry out killings.
Money was sent to the organization even after the military leader died, the indictment charges.
Moalin was arrested Sunday, just before he was to board a flight at Lindbergh Field, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Mohamud and Doreh were arrested Monday.
The arrests were made by FBI agents, with help from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers.
The defendants generally speak and understand English, though their lawyers asked for a Somali-speaking interpreter to be available for court hearings and meetings with their clients at the MCC, which they said was a difficult place to communicate with their clients.
The judge also scheduled a motions and trial-setting hearing for Dec. 3.
The indictment describes al-Shabaab as a group that uses assassinations, improvised explosives devices, rockets, mortars, automatic weapons, suicide bombings and other tactics of intimidation and violence to undermine Somalia's government and its supporters.
Al-Shabaab was in the news recently when its members executed a pair of teenage girls by firing squad in a central Somali town, after accusing them of spying for the United States. Townspeople were forced to watch the shooting.
The organization, based in southern Somalia, imposes a Taliban-style religious order in areas under its control. Some of its fighters have trained in Afghanistan and are linked to al-Qaeda, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.
Many of al-Shabaab's attacks are against aid workers and African Union peacekeepers, according to the NCTC.
