Minnesota men plead not guilty to terrorism charges

ISIS terror suspects
Five young men accused of trying to join the ISIS terror group are, left to right: Adnan Farah, Zacharia Abdurahman, Hanad Musse, Guled Omar, Hamza Ahmed.
Courtesy of

Five Minnesota men charged with conspiracy to provide material support to the terror group ISIS in Syria pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the charges.

The five men — Guled Omar, Hamza Ahmed, Adnan Farah, Zacharia Abdurahman, and Hanad Musse — were arraigned in a Minneapolis federal court, where they entered their pleas before Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis.

A federal grand jury indicted the five men Tuesday on various terrorism charges.

Federal prosecutors say the men, all 19 and 20 years old, were conspiring to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS. Authorities say two of them used their college financial aid money to pay for their plane tickets.

Their trial dates have not been set.

These men never left the country. But the FBI says more than 20 people have traveled from Minnesota to Syria over the past two years to join the terrorist group.

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