Overview

• Abdisatar Ahmed Hassan, 23, entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in St. Paul before Judge Donovan Frank to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
• He remains in custody pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled, and the charge carries a statutory maximum of 15 years in prison.
• Prosecutors say airline staff blocked his first December 2024 departure for lacking proper documents and federal officers questioned him during a second attempt, causing him to miss that flight.
• Investigators report finding texts with an apparent ISIS recruiter and pdf files described as instructions for making explosives on his phones, along with searches related to weapons and ISIS.
• Court filings say he praised ISIS-inspired violence online and was seen displaying an ISIS flag, which authorities cite as evidence supporting their disruption of his efforts.