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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Portland Oregon jihad update; Appeal for acquittal and inew trial readied by defense

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Mohamed Mohamud tried to murder thousands of non-Muslims, or kuffir in the name of Allah.  He pushed the button to detonate the bomb he believed would bring him closer to paradise.  Now, as was expected his lawyers are going to press for acquittal, and if that doesn't work ask for a new trial.  Mohamud was entrapped, they say and would not have become a jihadist if not for the insistence of the FBI operatives.  A question; what would compel you to blow up innocent people?  If you had no desire or interest in such things, what could someone say that would entice you into murder?

From KOIN Feb 18 by Jennifer Meacham

'Christmas tree bomb plot' attorneys ask judge for Mohamud's acquittal, new trial

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Attorneys for the 21-year-old Corvallis resident convicted of "attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction" in Portland court Jan. 31 are making good on a previous promise aired on KOIN.

Chief Deputy Federal Public Defender Stephen Sady is leading a "Motion for Judgment of Acquittal" for DefendantMohamed Osman Mohamud. In the absence of an acquittal, Mohamud's attorneys also have filed a motion for a new trial.

"The intervention of undercover agents," Mohamud's attorneys stated in their filing this past week, "...to redirect Mr. Mohamud out of the rehabilitative and corrective program his parents had designed for him -- and toward committing acts in the United States -- require acquittal."

The filing states that "The evidence established that Mr. Mohamud was incapable -- lacked the wherewithal -- to commit the offense on his own ... Witness after witness testified to the absence of research or other planning or preparation until after the first face-to-face meeting."

Mohamud's 14-day trial ended this past month with a guilty verdict from a federal jury in the District of Oregon. The verdict came more than two years after FBI agents say the naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia pressed a button that could have set off a bomb at the Black Friday Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Portland's Pioneer Square.

Without an acquittal or new trial, Mohamud is scheduled for sentencing May 14. According to Department of Justice, "At sentencing, Mohamud faces a maximum statutory sentence of life in prison."

The Oregon man was arrested Nov. 26, 2010, in what the Department of Justice is calling "an explosives-laden van" parked near the lighting ceremony. The explosive device was sourced through agents with the FBI.

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