Mohammad Hamdan

DETROIT — Mohammad Hamdan, who pled guilty on Friday to lying to a federal agent, had no intention of joining Hezbollah and would not have broken the law before his contact with a government agent provocateur, his attorney said. 

Hamdan, a 24 year-old Dearborn resident, was arrested in 2014 while trying to travel to Lebanon. He was accused of attempting to join Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the State Department.

His family said Hamdan was pushed to make incriminating statements by an informant whom he perceived as a friend. 

Attorney Art Weiss, who represents Hamdan, said recorded conversations between the defendant and the informant show that his client had no interest in being a part of the militant group. 

Hezbollah is currently fighting alongside the Syrian army against rebels and extremists, including ISIS and al-Qaeda. Besides being a militant organization, it is a powerful political party in Lebanon, particularly popular in the south of the country, where it fought the Israeli occupation.

Weiss stressed that Hamdan only pled guilty to lying to a federal agent about a conversation he had had with the informant regarding joining Hezbollah; he was not convicted of terrorism. 

“It was a very specific plea to a very specific charge. Any attempts by anyone to make it more than it was is inappropriate and does a disservice not only to the system but to Mr. Hamdan as well,” he said.

The attorney said the purpose of Hamdan’s trip to Lebanon was to get dental work done and clear his mind of some personal problems, including a breakup from a long relationship.

“He wanted to go to Lebanon to have his batteries recharged and then come back to the United States and start a new chapter of his life going forward,” Weiss said. 

Prosecutors said Hamdan had packed all his possessions. 

Weiss said Hamdan had no intention in engaging in the conversations that got him into his current difficulties before meeting the informant.

A source familiar with the situation, who wished to remain anonymous, told The AANews that the government agent became an informant because of problems with his immigration status.

Weiss said he cannot comment on the matter, but acknowledged that he has heard this “rumor.”

“Of all the material that I have seen, there is nothing in Hamdan’s background that indicates his intent about dealing with Hezbollah until this individual started talking to him about it,” Weiss said.

The FBI informant went after a “low hanging fruit” by targeting Hamdan, Weiss said. He added that the defendant is not a candidate for Hezbollah, an Islamist group that requires members to be religiously devout. 

“He had applied for citizenship in the United States; he’s got tattoos; he used drugs; he’s been with women,” Weiss said of Hamdan. “He satisfies none of the criteria that Hezbollah would utilize in allowing someone to join their ranks.”

Weiss said when the informant kept bringing up Hezbollah, Hamdan kept saying: “I am not interested”, and that he could not join even if he wanted to.

“The other individual, undaunted, would say, ‘We have connections; we can do things,’” Weiss continued. “Hamdan responded he’s not interested in connections.”

The attorney said he would have loved to take the case to trial, but Hamdan decided to take the plea deal. There was also a concern about getting a fair and impartial jury, according to Weiss.

“You just have to look at the presidential campaign and the outrageous statements that are made, inflaming the passions and fears of individuals, which would make getting a fair trial an extremely hard endeavor,” he said.

The maximum sentence for Hamdan’s offense is eight years. But he agreed with the prosecutor to serve five years and three months, as a part of his plea deal, according to his attorney. He has already spent more than two years in jail, as he was denied bond.

Hamdan, a permanent resident, will be deported after he serves his sentence. 

Monira Baydoun, Hamdan’s mother, was disheartened by the outcome of the case. She could not hold back the tears as she repeatedly reiterated that he has done nothing wrong. 

“Our family was destroyed,” she told The AANews. “His future is gone. All of this happened to us because we are weak.”

Referring to her son by his nickname Hamada, she described him as a gentle soul who loved everyone and had medical issues.

Baydoun criticized the Arab American organizations for failing to advocate for her son.

“Nobody stood with us. They treated us like bugs, like we don’t matter,” she said.

The mother added that Hamdan has nowhere to stay in Lebanon after serving his sentence.

“He was struggling here,” she said. “We have no home in Lebanon. What will he do?”

Baydoun said no one in the family, even in Lebanon, has connections to Hezbollah. She added that the informant was adamant in pushing Hamdan to make casual incriminating comments.

“It was just words, just a conversation,” she said.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said it is illegal to lie to federal agents. 

“Here, Mr. Hamdan lied to cover up his intent to travel overseas to fight with Hezbollah, a group that have been designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization,” she said in a statement. 

The FBI said the case demonstrates the importance of the Bureau’s work. 

“This case highlights the significance of the investigative work being done by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Detroit,” David Gelios, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, said in a statement.

A Dearborn Heights man was arrested in February after telling an undercover agent that he wanted to shoot up a church in Detroit. His attorney also argued that the FBI provoked, radicalized and manipulated him.