Former Stoughton Resident Added To FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists List
BOSTON (CBS/AP) – A man from Massachusetts has been added to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists List.
Ahmad Abousamra, 32, is a U.S. citizen from Mansfield who authorities believe may be living in Aleppo, Syria, with at least one child, a daughter, and extended family. He uses several aliases.
Abousamra grew up in Stoughton and graduated from high school there in 1999. He attended UMass-Boston and then later fled the United States in 2006, shortly after being interviewed by the FBI.
The bureau says he is an associate of Tarek Mehanna, a Sudbury man convicted on four terrorism charges and sentenced to 17½ years in prison in 2012. Investigators believe Abousamra met Mehanna at a mosque in Sharon and later moved to Mansfield.
In October 2012, the FBI announced it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to Abousamra's arrest.
He was indicted in 2009 after taking multiple trips to Pakistan and Yemen, where he allegedly attempted to obtain military training for the purpose of killing American soldiers overseas. The FBI said he also traveled to Iraq in the hope of joining forces fighting against the United States, but said the exact nature of his activities there is unknown.
Prosecutors said during Mehanna's trial that Mehanna and Abousamra failed to find a terrorist training camp.
In Nov. 2009, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Abousamra after he was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country and other charges. He and Mehanna were charged in a later indictment with an additional count of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, al-Qaeda. Abousamra was indicted on nine charges in total.
The FBI says he should be considered armed and dangerous.
Abousamra was born in France, is of Syrian descent and has dual citizenship in the United States and Syria. He speaks, reads and writes fluently in English and Arabic, and has a college degree related to computer technology.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI.
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