Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, a 33-year-old man from Gaza living in Lafayette, Louisiana, was arrested on October 16 for alleged participation in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. He is being charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a terror organization resulting in death as well as fraud and misuse of visa permits, with the former carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, and the latter carrying up to 10 years imprisonment. The prosecution also stated that deportation to Israel would be a possible penalty as well if convicted. Al-Muhtadi has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
The first arrest on US soil related to alleged participation in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, al-Muhtadi is accused of being a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (DFLP) National Resistance Brigades and leading combatants into Israel as part of the heroic Operation.
In 2024, al-Muhtadi applied for a visa, denying any participation in “terrorist activities.” Prosecutors are using this as a means of tacking on another charge.
Al-Muhtadi’s arrest is the first major action of the Justice Department’s Joint Task Force October 7, which was founded in February this year to “prioritize seeking justice for the victims of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack in Israel, addressing the ongoing threat posed by Hamas and its affiliates, and combating antisemitic acts of terrorism and civil rights violations in the homeland.”
The representatives of the ruling class have been raving over the charges. “After hiding out in the United States, this monster has been found and charged with participating in the atrocities of October 7,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a press statement.
Al-Muhtadi’s attorney, Aaron Adams, pointed out the hypocrisy of the reactionary response to the charges: “In the American criminal legal system, all accused are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. In calling Mahmoud Al-Muhtadi a ‘monster,’ Attorney General Pamela Bondi seems to have forgotten this fundamental principle.”
With the reactionization of the state, political persecution grows more intense and the ruling class becomes more aggressive in its attacks against those it deems to be its enemies. The undeniable victories of the Palestinian resistance against the US and Israel have made the US ruling class all the more desperate and furious to achieve some sort of compensation for its defeats, initiating the task force as part of its impossible agenda to quell support for Palestine in the US.
Image: An alleged photo of Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi (left). Credit: KADN News 15.
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