The indictment said three MUSLIM gangs called the Somali Outlaws,
the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws were forcing teenage girls into
prostitution and operated in St. Paul , Minneapolis ; Columbus , and Nashville .
After selecting a jury last month, the
trial was delayed last week when prosecutors turned over thousands of documents
and audio recordings from the investigation to defense attorneys on the eve of
trial. Both defense attorneys and federal prosecutors have repeatedly declined
to comment about the case. (Of
course not, when it’s about Muslims, mum’s the word)
The indictment, which was originally
unsealed in 2010 and amended by a superseding indictment in 2011, says the
defendants, many of them from the Somali MUSLIM immigrant communities in
Minneapolis and Nashville, were members or associates of the three gangs. Four
unidentified victims, some of who were under the age of 14, are listed in the
indictment.
The indictment accuses the gangs of
finding and recruiting young girls for the purpose of prostitution in exchange
for money and drugs between 2000 and 2010.
Out of the 30 individuals listed in the
indictment, only 14 are going to trial this month in Nashville on charges of conspiracy to commit
sexual trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion and charges related
to the sexual trafficking. Many of the individuals have remained in federal
custody since their arrests in 2010.
Smith has been working with Jane Doe #2 in
the case and said testifying against other Somali MUSLIMS will be very
difficult for the victim, but she wants to have her voice heard. ”In the
case of Jane Doe #2, she, as a minor, would typically be in a closed court, but
she wants to have her story known and she wants to speak in public,” Smith
said.
Many, but not all the defendants, are
described as refugees who came to the United States as young children.
Police have relied on immigration paperwork to determine their ages, but
defense attorneys have argued in court that information in those documents are
routinely incorrect due to cultural and language issues. (No, it is because Muslims
lie. Period)
Courts in Minnesota ,
the state with the largest Somali MUSLIM population in the U.S. , have seen
similar issues in cases where defendants or victims are Somali MUSLIMS.
“When you are dealing with an inbred community, especially
whose native language is not English, people are going to worry about the
ramifications of testifying in court against community members,” Scott said.
“The Somali MUSLIM community is a very insular community in Minnesota — everybody knows everybody (and most everybody is
married to their own family members)
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