SACRAMENTO — An alleged ISIS member suspected of killing an Iraqi police officer in 2014 was arrested Wednesday in Sacramento.
Federal agents raided an apartment on Eastern Avenue.
The suspect, 45-year-old Omar Abdulsatter Ameen, is accused of killing Ihsan Abdulhafiz Jasim after ISIS entered the Rawah district of the Al-Anbar province in Iraq on June 21, 2014. ISIS took control of the district, preventing people from entering or leaving.
The next day, court documents say Ameen was a part of a four-vehicle convoy that drove to the victim’s home. Jasim was shot in the chest, killing him, which ISIS announced on social media.
A few months later in November 2014, Ameen migrated to the U.S. claiming to be a refugee, settling in Sacramento. He filed an I-485 application and when asked on his refugee application if he’d killed anyone, he answered no.
A witness was able to identify Ameen in a photograph.
“We were shocked,” said neighbor Greg Hutson. “We couldn’t believe what was happening to be honest with you.”
Hutson lives a few doors away from Ameen. He says there is a large group of refugee families in the complex from the Middle East but did not interact much with the other families.
“You didn’t see him come together with the rest of them, have coffee and tea together. You didn’t see him interact too much,” Hutson told FOX40.
One young girl seemed to confirm that as she translated for her father.
“He didn’t know them well but they’re friends. Yeah, he’s a good neighbor,” she said.
She told FOX40 Ameen had four young kids, two boys and two girls. He worked as a mechanic.
“Two factors have to be considered: whether or not this is the right person and whether or not there’s sufficient evidence to justify sending him over,” said former federal prosecutor Bill Portanova.
Portanova believes Ameen will likely be extradited back to Iraq, which the Iraqi government requested. It was an Iraqi warrant, issued May 16, that led to Ameen’s arrest.
“The murder charge in Iraq is probably a death sentence so these attorneys will fight it,” Portanova said.
Much of the evidence proving Ameen’s crime and ISIS affiliation are redacted from the unsealed court documents. That evidence, presumably, was enough to get Ameen extradited back to Iraq.
According to the US DOJ, Ameen entered the country purportedly as a refugee, was trying to get status here in the U.S. in November 2014 pic.twitter.com/T6sKoViMWG
— Joe Khalil (@JoeKhalilTV) August 15, 2018
A complaint filed against Ameen can be read in full below:
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Background Details on Omar Ameen from the Criminal Complaint
Based on the criminal complaint on file, Ameen and some of his family members have a long history with Al Qaeda and ISIS.
In 2004, Ameen worked with other terrorist cells and is the founder of al-Tawhide Wa al-Jihad, an offshoot of Al Qaeda.
During that time he was a close associate of a very well known and brutal terrorist figure named Abu Mus’ab al Zarqawi, who died in 2006.
Ameen became the financial officer for Al Qaeda in the Al Anbar Province.
In 2007, Ameen worked under an authority figure within Al Qaeda, Ghassan Muhammad Ameen al Rawi, who happens to be Ameen’s cousin.
He comes from a family of 10 brothers and three sisters; all 10 of his brothers followed him into Al Qaeda “without exception.”
Ameen worked in “the trade of building material supplies. He also has a shopping center in the Rawah District” — the same district in Al-Anbar province where he’s alleged to have murdered the Iraqi security guard in the name of ISIS.
