Mehanna, 29, an Egyptian-American, grew up in the small town of Sudbury outside of Boston. By all accounts, he grew more devoted to his Muslim religion and more critical of American foreign policy. Whether he translated his views into actions that were crimes is at the crux of the high-profile trial, which included 31 days of testimony.
Mehanna is charged with conspiring to support terrorists, conspiring to kill in a foreign country, and lying to federal investigators. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to life in prison.
Prosecutors say Mehanna traveled to Yemen in search of terrorism training so he could carry out jihad, or holy war, in support of Al Qaeda against US soldiers in Iraq.
“There should be no doubt, reasonable or otherwise, that Mehanna [and his friend] went to Yemen to get training for fighting,” Auerhahn said.
Mehanna allegedly failed to find a terrorist camp and returned to the United States, determined to help Al Qaeda by translating the group’s documents into English and distributing them on the Internet.
Defense attorneys say Mehanna traveled to Yemen in search of schools to further his studies on Islamic jurisprudence and Arabic.
“It was a free trip so that he could … check out the schools, so that he could study his religion, and come back,” said J.W. Carney Jr., who also spoke in Mehanna’s defense.
If Mehanna had traveled to Yeman to get terror training, Carney asked during dramatic remarks, “Why didn’t he just continue to Iraq?”
Defense attorneys also say Mehanna had the First Amendment right to distribute the information on the Internet, that he was simply expressing his opposition to US foreign policy, and that he never worked in partnership with any terror organization.
Follow Milton Valencia’s tweets from the courtroom today @MiltonValencia.
