Judge refuses to let accused ISIS supporter take wedding trip to West Bank amid concerns

The possibility of Ramadan absconding is "substantial," the judge wrote Friday.

"Moreover, the last-minute nature of this request — being filed less than a week before the proposed travel — raises questions about its legitimacy that are not clearly answered in the pleadings," Berg wrote.

Ramadan's last attempted flight prompted a long-running legal battle that as recently as February sent the tow truck driver back to jail. He was incarcerated for two months after prosecutors accused him of buying dangerous weapons while under court supervision and, among other actions, downloading Islamic State manuals for making bombs, explosives and poisons.

"Mr. Ramadan is appealing the judgment and sentence in his supervised released case and recognizes that his failure to return to the U.S. would likely result in a dismissal of his appeal," Densemo wrote.

Ramadan's legal problems started in August 2017. That is when the father of four was removed from a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after investigators searched his luggage and found pepper spray, knives, a stun gun, black masks, two-way radios, a gas mask, a tactical vest and photos of a homemade pipe bomb.

At the time, prosecutors portrayed him as a violent, dangerous crook obsessed with weapons and the Islamic State, but the case never led to terrorism charges. Instead, Ramadan was charged with gun crimes after investigators discovered weapons in a storage locker.

After being convicted and serving his prison sentence, Ramadan subscribed to an Islamic State media channel, the prosecutor said. And he downloaded Islamic State manuals for building explosives and making poisons.

In March 2023, Ramadan installed a photo of an Islamic State flag as his screen saver and was researching how to produce 3D guns, according to the government.

Despite a ban on possessing firearms or dangerous weapons, prosecutors said Ramadan bought two BB guns — an air rifle and an air pistol in October 2023 on Amazon.com.

Ramadan also started downloading Islamic State manuals within weeks of being sentenced in 2022, the prosecutor said. One guide instructed how to make the explosive C4, while another guide was for making the high explosive PETN. That is one of the same explosives contained in the bomb Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate in a failed Christmas Day terror attack aboard a Detroit-bound airliner in 2009.

There is no indication investigators found any explosives or ingredients, Ramadan's other defense lawyer, Amanda Bashi, countered. She argued previously that Ramadan was being targeted for his beliefs and for consuming Islamic State media, which does not constitute a violation of his supervised release.

Ramadan was most recently released from custody April 8 and filed the travel request two weeks later.

The government's opposition alleges new troubling behavior by Ramadan after he was released this month. Specifically, he violated conditions of supervised release by obtaining an iPhone.

"The government understands that Ramadan has also refused to provide the passwords for his phone(s) so they can be monitored," the prosecutor wrote.

There was no immediate response Friday from Densemo.

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