A person accused of collaborating in assaults in Mali in 2015 that killed dozens of individuals, together with an American support employee, was extradited to america to face a number of terrorism prices in federal court docket in Brooklyn, the authorities stated on Saturday.
The person, Fawaz Ould Ahmed Ould Ahemeid, 44, has already pleaded responsible to associated offenses in Mali, the place he was sentenced to death. He arrived in america on Friday and appeared on Saturday earlier than a federal Justice of the Peace choose in Brooklyn, the place he pleaded not responsible.
Mr. Ahemeid was ordered detained pending trial. The phrases of the extradition, and what it means for his sentence in Mali, weren’t instantly clear.
In an indictment unsealed on Saturday, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Jap District of New York charged Mr. Ahemeid with the homicide of the American support employee, Anita Ashok Datar, in addition to offering materials assist to Al Qaeda within the Islamic Maghreb — Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate in North Africa — and associated crimes.
Ms. Datar, a 41-year-old public well being knowledgeable from Takoma Park, Md., was a visitor on the Radisson Blu lodge in Bamako, Mali, on Nov. 20, 2015, when two armed males attacked the hotel, killing 20 individuals. Prosecutors stated Mr. Ahemeid masterminded the assault on behalf of the Al Qaeda affiliate and a neighborhood militant group, al-Murabitoun.
In accordance with the indictment, Mr. Ahemeid, a Mauritanian nationwide, joined Al Qaeda within the Islamic Maghreb round 2007.
Federal prosecutors stated he deliberate and dedicated not less than three main terrorist assaults in opposition to Western targets in Mali. On March 7, 2015, Mr. Ahemeid — armed with two assault rifles, a pistol and grenades — attacked a restaurant in Bamako. 5 individuals have been killed.
On Aug. 7, 2015, Mr. Ahemeid helped plan and perform an attack on the Lodge Byblos in Sevare, Mali, by which 13 individuals have been killed, together with 5 United Nations staff, prosecutors stated.
Mr. Ahemeid was arrested in Mali in 2016 and pleaded responsible in 2020 to prices in reference to the lodge and restaurant assaults.
In accordance with an account of his sentencing in Mali, which was reported by Reuters, Mr. Ahemeid described the assaults intimately, saying that he regretted nothing. He stated he carried them out as revenge for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad printed by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
