The San Antonio lawyer for a Somali man accused of smuggling suspected terrorists into the United States disputed the government's allegations Thursday, saying his client only sought a better life.

In earlier court filings, federal prosecutors alleged Ahmed Dhakane, 25, was a member of groups the government considers terrorist organizations. They also claim he led a large-scale ring in Brazil that smuggled “violent jihadists” into this country via Texas, by using a network of corrupt officials and teaching his clients to commit asylum fraud.

Prosecutors also contend Dhakane raped a woman who accompanied him as he tried to get asylum after crossing into Brownsville on March 28, 2008. Prosecutors seek 20 years in prison for him. A pre-sentence report recommends 27 years to nearly 34 years.

But Dhakane's lawyer, assistant federal public defender Alfredo Villarreal, filed a sentencing memorandum Thursday that paints Dhakane as one of millions of Somali refugees seeking better lives. Villarreal's filing seeks a sentence closer to 10 years because Dhakane's only proven crimes are two counts of lying to try to get asylum.

Dhakane is set for sentencing on Thursday in a hearing in which counterterrorism agents are expected to testify about the organizations he was allegedly affiliated with — al-Barakaat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami — and how he fit into them. The government's memo said the groups are affiliated with Somalia-based Al-Shabaab, which has aligned itself with al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden.

The government in 2008 designated Al-Shabaab a terror organization, part of an insurgency determined to set up an Islamic theocracy in Somalia that has stated its intent to harm the United States.

In his memo, Villarreal reminded U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez that Dhakane did not plead guilty to terrorism charges, and that Dhakane is Christian, not Muslim. It said Dhakane's father was ordered executed in 2006 by an Islamic court because of his belief in secular rule for Somalia. The memo said authorities used information about Somalia and Dhakane that is false or out of context, and no terrorist plot has been uncovered because “there isn't one, and there never was.”

Villarreal's memo questions why the woman is still in contact with Dhakane after raising the rape allegations. The memo also predicted that some of Dhakane's alleged smuggling clients, expected to testify at his sentencing, will say what they think the government wants to hear in hopes of improving their chances of staying in the United States.

On Nov. 2, Dhakane pleaded guilty to two false statement charges: He admitted he mischaracterized how he entered the United States, and that he falsely claimed a woman was his wife so she also could enter the United States.

“The government ... seeks to have Dhakane sentenced not for the proved false statements on the asylum application, but for unsubstantiated claims of terrorism and rape it lodges against Dhakane,” Villarreal wrote.

The memo said Dhakane worked for al-Barakaat, a money remittance system used by Somali expatriates after the collapse of the central banking system in the 1990s. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government claimed al-Barakaat aided the financing of terrorists, but the system was also used by the United Nations to transmit money to Somalia in support of its relief missions there, Villarreal's memo said, citing studies and the 9/11 Commission Report.

“As the 9/11 commission found, al-Barakaat provided necessary services, and although in the early fervor of the post-9/11 period it had been denounced as a terrorist organization, the 9/11 commission found that label unsubstantiated,” Villarreal wrote.

The memo also said U.S. authorities misconstrued Dhakane's association with members tied to AIAI and other groups that sought to impose an Islamic state in Somalia. For instance, the memo said, Dhakane was imprisoned and mistreated by some of the Islamists after he converted to Christianity in 2002.

“A desire to stay in the United States and away from Somalia ... is what led Dhakane to make false declarations,” Villarreal wrote. “Contrary to the government's speculations ... false declarations, not puffery and speculation, are what Dhakane should be sentenced for.”

Source: www.mysanantonio.com