Judge denies bond to pair accused of trying to join ISIL

Luke Skywalker · Aug 11, 2015

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[h=4]Judge denies bond to pair accused of trying to join ISIL[/h]OXFORD, Miss. — In day two of a federal court hearing for a man and woman from Mississippi who are accused of trying to join the Islamic State, evidence was presented suggesting the woman, the daughter of a Vicksburg, Miss.

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A Mississippi couple accused of trying to join the Islamic State has been denied bond in federal court. The two former Mississippi State University students are charged with trying to provide assistance and materials to a foreign terrorist group. ClarionLedger.com

In this Oct. 5, 2012, photo, Jaelyn Young, an honor student at Warren Central High School, poses for a photo in Vicksburg, Miss. Young and Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla were arrested Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015, on charges that they were trying to travel abroad to join the Islamic State militant group.(Photo: Melanie Thortis, AP)

OXFORD, Miss. — In day two of a federal court hearing for a couple from Mississippi who are*accused of trying to join the Islamic State, evidence was presented suggesting the woman, the daughter of a Vicksburg, Miss., police officer, was the alleged mastermind behind the plan to leave the United States.
Jaelyn Delshaun Young, 20, and Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla, 22, were arrested at Golden Triangle Airport in Columbus on Saturday. Investigators said they were bound for Atlanta, but eventually for Syria, where they hoped to join*Islamic State. They were both charged with allegedly conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander denied bond to both Young and Dakhlalla, 22, of Starkville, Miss.,*in day two of their initial appearance Tuesday. The couple's attorneys had argued that they did not have the means to flee and did not pose a threat to others, but the prosecution argued that they did not need money or transportation to be able to pose a threat to society.
In the end, Alexander agreed.*At least one letter left by Young told family members that "I made the contacts ... I planned everything," and also included the statement, "We know I can't come back."
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Miss. duo charged with trying to join ISIL

"Well she's not over there, and that's probably true, she probably couldn't have come back," said Ken Coughlin, Young's attorney. "But I don't think these letters change anything."
Court documents not only show that Young allegedly wanted to join the group also known as ISIS or ISIL, but that she rejoiced over the death of five service members in an attack in Chattanooga, Tenn.
"What makes me feel better after just watching the news is that an akhi carried out an attack against US marines in TN," she wrote. "Alhamdulillah, the numbers of supporters are growing."
Alexander said that much of the evidence and information gathered that led to the arrest of the couple is still classified.
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Federal agents began talking to Young online in May 2015 when she expressed a desire on Twitter to travel to Syria in support of ISIL, and made several supportive statements about the designated foreign terrorist organization.
Both defendants subsequently expressed their readiness to travel overseas to join Islamic State.
Prosecutors pointed out that while the defendants' lawyers argued that they had no military training or weapons, they were not harmless. The prosecution pointed out that ISIL calls on their followers to conduct lone wolf attacks with little to no training. Dhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon Bomber, was 19 and had no military training and made bombs out of pressure cookers from videos on YouTube, they contended, and ISIL has similar videos.
The criminal complaint states that around May 13, 2015, an individual on Twitter, later revealed to be Young, had allegedly expressed a wish to travel to Syria to join ISIL. An FBI employee made contact and identified her through several forms of social media.
Around May 25, Young's Twitter account had a post that said, "The only thing keeping me away is $$$ but working all this overtime will be worth when I am finally there. #baqiya." Baqiya is a shortening of an Islamic term that means "remaining and expanding."
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Young also told FBI employees that in the Muslim family she spends time with, many of them do not support the beliefs of Islamic*State*and stated that she disagreed with them. She allegedly told the employee that she had a travel "brother" and that she would have to marry him in order to travel without an escort.
Dakhlalla is that partner, according to court papers. Young allegedly told the FBI that she and Dakhlalla would be traveling to Turkey and then to Syria, where they planned to join ISIL.
“I honestly believe the relative life of privilege has insulated them from the actual reality of what they were doing.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander
Authorities then made contact with Dakhlalla via social media and he told them he was proficient with computers, education, and media, then asked how he could help. Young later allegedly told the FBI that Dakhlalla would be "media or Mujahideen."
Young told authorities that she wanted to help give medical aid. Dakhlalla later allegedly told the FBI that he wanted to fight for ISIL.
"I want to be taught what it really means to have that heart in battle," he wrote, according to court documents.
Alexander told the couple that she felt like they had been raised in a sheltered manner that hadn't given them a real perspective on the kind of life they were asking for.
"I honestly believe the relative life of privilege has insulated them from the actual reality of what they were doing," Alexander said. "I'm quite sure they would have found a life very different than what they thought."
The two are former*Mississippi State University*students, said*MSU spokesman*Sid Salter.*Dakhalla was a spring 2015 graduate in psychology, and*Young is a former sophomore chemistry student.
Dakhlalla's father, Oda H. Dakhlalla, is the longtime imam of the Islamic Center of Mississippi in Starkville, said Dennis Harmon, an attorney representing the family. Oda Dakhlalla was born in Bethlehem and his mother, Lisa Dakhlalla is from New Jersey.*The youngest of three boys, Harmon described Dakhlalla as a “very smart, very quiet, very thoughtful person” who took martial arts training as a child.
Young's father, Leonce Young, is a 17-year veteran of the Vicksburg Police Department. He and his wife were present Tuesday for the hearing, but declined to speak to reporters afterward. In court, prosecutors said Jaelyn Young had been trying to convert her sister to Islam as well.
The couple was turned over to the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service.
According to a Department of Justice news release, the charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Contributing: Sarah Fowler, The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger; The Associated Press.
Young and Dakhlalla Criminal Complaint

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Judge denies bond to pair accused of trying to join ISIL

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